WaterLily's
by Ecila
Summary: Yea! NEW CHAPTER! NEW CHAPTER! NEW CHAPTER! Thank-god, and it only took me a term to write! (*cough*) oh well, MWPP, summer holidays, Lily's muggle friends embarress her infront of James and Sirius, plus we find out a little bit about Jasmine's house. Ple
1. Waterlily's

'So...Petty dear, when do I get to meet this guy of yours?' Lily Evans had been asking her sister that question all through the summer.

Petunia looked shocked.

'_You_ are not going to meet him if I can help it. I happen to like my Vernon as a human thank-you very much.'

'Who said I'd deform him? All I want to do is meet him. What's wrong with that?'

'Just because _you_ can't get a boyfriend, doesn't mean I'm going to let you ruin my relationship Lily. "All I want to do is meet him." My arse.' Petunia stalked away to her room.

Lily sighed. That had been one of their longest convocation's since she'd received her acceptance letter from Hogwarts. "She's just jealous." Her parents had told her. "She'll get over it." Lily doubted that very much. Her sister _was_ a bitch, but that didn't stop Lily from missing her.

'Lily!' Her dad's voice calling from downstairs interrupted her thoughts. 'Lily, it's time to get your school stuff.'

Lily jumped up from her chair. She had been dying to get her wand. 'Coming!' She shouted downstairs.

She ran to the top of the stairs and slid down the banister. Her dad was waiting in the hall for her. Car keys in one hand.

'I don't suppose Petunia wants to come for the ride?' He asked, looking up the stairs.

'I _really_ doubt it.' Lily answered. She had always gotten on well with her dad. More so than with her mother. He said she had inherited his scarlet hair, but Lily found that hard to believe as her father had turned gray years ago.

'Come-on, hurry-up!' Lily urged him, opening the door and pulling him through it.

***

As they were driving through London it started to rain. 

'Where is this place again Lily?' Her dad asked her.

'Um, it's just off Yorkshire Rd, behind the Leaky Cauldron.'

'Ok then.'

About 20 minutes later he parked the car. 

Lily looked from the bookshop to the record store, then forced herself to look between the two.

'Here it is.' She told her Dad, pointing at the grubby little inn.

She led him inside.

There was a musty smell around the little inn, but it was cozy all the same. They walked up to the bar, and were about to ring the bell when a small boy of about 8 came out from a room behind the counter.

' 'Ello. 'Oo are you?' He asked them grinning. 'I'm Tom. My dad owns this place.'

'Hi Tom.' Lily said to him. 'We wanted to know how to get into Diagon Alley.'

'Are you starting at Hogwarts?' He asked curiously.

'Yep.' She answered.

He led them around the bar and out a door that led to a tiny back yard. Lily's dad was looking around him, amazed.

Lily watched as Tom drew a wand from his pocket and started counting the bricks above the dustbin. All of a sudden, the brick wall formed an archway for them to get through.

'Thanks Tom.' Lily said.

'Your welcome, I've gotta get back and mind the bar now.' With that, he scuttled back inside and Lily dragged her dad through the hole in the wall just before it closed up again.

Lily looked around in awe. This place was amazing. There was shop after shop of magical items. There were shops that sold broomsticks and books and turquoise dogs.

'Come on Lily, we'd better get some money first.' Her dad told her, he too was staring around at the shop.

'Ok.' She followed him into a white marble building.

'Hello. What can I do for you?' Lily jumped. A green little monster had just spoken to her dad.

'Um...er we need to exchange some money, for my daughters school things.' He told the goblin, also shocked by its appearance.

'Follow me.' The goblin had a croaky sort of voice, it sounded almost evil. He led them up to the counter and opened up a cash register. 'How much?' He asked them.

'Um, I'm not sure.' Lily's dad told him. He handed the goblin a couple of English notes. 'We can always come back for more if we're a bit short.' He reassured Lily.

The goblin handed him a pouch that contained several gold coins, as well as quite alot of silver and bronze ones.

'Thank-you.' They left the building.

'Hey Dad, are you ok?' Lily asked him. 'You look a bit pale.'

He shook his head. 'I do feel a bit queasy.' He told her. 'Do you mind if I leave you to do your shopping while I wait in the leaky cauldron?'

'Sure Dad, go ahead.' 

He handed her the bag of coins and walked off towards the entrance.

When he had disappeared behind the brick wall, Lily started to feel lost. Here she was alone in a foreign world, with no idea where to go.

Suddenly, someone tapped her on the back.

She whirled around.

'Hi.' A girl of her age was standing behind her. 'I'm Jasmine.'

'I'm Lily.' She said smiling. The girl had short blonde hair and blue eyes. 'Are you getting your Hogwarts things?' Lily asked her.

'Yeah, I've been here a couple of times so my parents decided to dump me here alone while they go off to God knows where.'

'Are your parents a witch and a wizard?' She asked Jasmine fascinated.

'Yeah. My brother's also at Hogwarts so they expect me to be in Slytherin like him.'

'Slytherin?'

'Oh, there are four different houses at Hogwarts. Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Nearly everyone in my family was in Slytherin, but I reckon it's a hopeless house.'

'I don't know anything about the houses. Or anything else at Hogwarts for that matter.' Lily told her sadly.

'Oh, so you're a muggle-born?'

'A what?' 

'Your family weren't witches or wizards.'

'Oh, yeah.'

'Well, lets get our school stuff then?'

'Good idea.'

Jasmine led her down the street to a shop called _Madame Malkins Robes for all Occasions_. 

'In here.'

Inside it was dimly lit.

'Hello dears.' A young witch appeared from seemingly no where. 'Hogwarts?'

'Yes.'

'Follow me then.' The witch had a very kind sort of voice. 'Had alot of Hogwarts students coming in today. Yes, quite alot.' As she talked, she fitted them both into robes. 'There you are dears. Your all done.' She smiled at them as they paid for the robes and left the shop.

'Ok, where now?' Lily asked.

'Um, we need our potion ingredients, and...'

They visited the Apothecary, and Flourish and Blotts, and a shop that sold ink and parchment, then they went to buy their cauldrons.

'Oh Lily, look there's my Mum and Dad, I've got to go. I've already got my cauldron and wand anyway. See-you on the Hogwarts Express. Bye.'

'Bye' Lily called to her as she hurried away.

Lily went inside the cauldron shop and looked around. There was a whole wall dedicated to cauldrons. She took a pewter cauldron down and struggled to carry it too the counter.

'Need some help?' A boy with messy, black hair who had just entered the shop walked up to her.

'No thank-you, I can manage.' She told him.

'Are you sure?' He asked.

'Positive.' She reached the counter and dumped the cauldron onto it, panting. She paid the shop attendant and started to leave the shop.

'Hey wait!' The boy cried. 'I don't even know your name!'

'I know you don't.' Lily called back to him, walking out the door.

The boy quickly paid got his cauldron and hurried out after her.

'Wait up!' He called to her.

Lily pretended not to hear.

The boy caught up with her and grabbed her arm. 'I'm James Potter.'

Lily looked at his hand on her arm. 'Let go of my arm James'

'Sorry.' He said sheepishly as he removed his hand. As soon as she was free, Lily started to walk away again.

'Aren't you even going to talk to me?' He cried after her.

She turned around, but continued to walk backwards. 'Do I have a reason to?' She asked.

James thought for a minute. No girl had ever asked for a _reason_ to talk to him. 'Well...I might be in your house.' He said quickly.

'I hope not.' Lily told him before entering _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine wands since 382BC. _

Damn. James thought to himself, why hadn't he thought up a better excuse?

***

Lily stared around her. The room was filled with boxes. In the window there was a red satin pillow with a gold wand on it. She walked over to a chair and sat down in it, still staring around her.

'Good morning.' Lily jumped out of the chair and whirled around.

A small, albino looking man stood in the doorway of a back room. His eyes were like silver slits of the moon.

'Hello.' Lily said timidly.

'Lily Evans?' He asked her.

'Yes, that's right. How do you know?'

He seemed not to hear hr question, instead he moved more into the room. 'I'm Mr Ollivander. I've made many a fine wand in my time. Your great-great grandmother I believe had one of my wands. Yes, a splendid wand, 13 and a half inches, ivory containing the hair of silver brumby.'

'My great-great grandmother...was a witch?' Lily asked puzzled.

Again Mr Ollivander didn't answer. He pulled a tape measure out of his pocket. 'Hold up your wand hand please.' He instructed. 

Lily did so, and Mr Olivander started measuring the distances between her fingers.

After 3 minutes of taking down measurements, he put the tape measure away and started pulling a couple of boxes of the wall.

'Here,' he told her, handing her a wand out of the box. 'Wave this, 7 and a half inches, made of beachhead and containing the feather of hippogriff.'

Lily looked down at the wand in her hand, then waved it about.

'Nope.' Mr Ollivander snatched it out of her hand. 'How about this one; 10 inches, red-gum, continuing an echidna spike.'

Lily waved wand after wand. Each time as unsuccessful as the last.

Mr Ollivander seemed to be enjoying it. He kept muttering under his breath about tricky customers.

He disappeared into the room he came from for a minute, and returned with yet another box. 'Here, try this one; 10 and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Excellent for charm work. I just finished it this morning.'

Lily took the box from him and removed the lid. This wand had a strange glow about it. With a trembling hand, she reached for it and picked it up. It gave out a warm, tingling feeling into her fingers. With renewed strength she raised it and brought it swishing down, sending a brilliant display of sparks around the room.

Mr Ollivander clapped and cried "Bravo! Bravo!"

Lily paid for her wand and thanked him before leaving the dusty old shop.

Outside it had started to rain.

'Crap.' Moaned Lily, as she started to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron carrying her packages.

'Hi again.' James suddenly appeared by her side.

Lily groaned. 'Please don't tell me you've been waiting outside for me all that time.'

'Ok, I won't tell you that I've been waiting outside all that time.' He said.

'Well...sorry, but you waited in vain. I'm going home now.' She began to walk faster.

He adjusted his pace to keep up. 'You know you're getting wet, do you want to share my umbrella?'

'Not particularly. I like the rain, it's got high moisturizing qualities.'

'Yeah, for plants.'

Lily walked through the archway without commenting. He stuck to her like glue.

'You still haven't told me your name yet.' He told her.

'What makes you so sure I'm going to?' She asked, looking around the room for her dad.

'Well, I-' He started to reply but Lily walked away up to the bar.

'Hi Tom, have you seen my dad?' She asked the boy watching them.

'Yep, he said for me to tell you to wait here for him.' Tom told her while drying a beer glass.

Lily sighed. 'Did he say where he was going?'

'Yes, he told me _not_ to tell you that he was going to get you a surprise going-away present.' Tom smiled mischievously.

'Oh, cool.' Lily smiled, her mood lifting.

****

'Tom!' An angry voice came from a room upstairs.

'Uh oh, I gotta go now. See-ya round Lily.' Tom darted out into the back yard.

Lily sighed again and took a seat at a table, dumping her stuff onto a spare chair.

She pulled one of her new books out of her bag (_Hogwarts; A history_) and started reading it. The chair opposite her scraped across the floor and someone sat down in it.

'Any reason you keep bothering me James?' Lily asked without looking up.

'Yes.' He answered.

Lily looked up at him. 'And _what_ would that be?'

'To find out your name.' He smiled mischievously.

'So if I tell you my name you'll leave me alone?' She asked hopefully.

'Maybe.'

'Fine, it's Harriet Glen. You can go now.' She looked back down at her book.

'Well, I could go, I guess... if that were your real name...' He said slowly.

'Well then goodbye.' She told him, still looking at her book.

'So _Harriet_ is your real name?' He asked.

'Yes!'

He burst out laughing.

'What?' She asked him, annoyed.

'That is so _not _your real name.'

'How would you know?'

'Because, your not a Harriet.'

'And I suppose your the name expert?'

'Yes, as a matter of fact I am.' He said this very smugly, and Lily felt the anger surge through her.

'Look, I told you my name, so now you can go.'

'_Harriet_ isn't your real name though.' He protested.

'Isn't it?' She said angrily.

'No. It isn't.'

Just then Lily's dad came into the door. Lily silently thanked him and got up.

'Bye person-who's-name-is-_not_-Harriet.' James said.

She smirked at him, picked up her stuff and rushed over to him.

'Hi Dad.' She gave him a hug and showed him her new stuff. 'What's that behind your back?' She asked him.

'It's a surprise.' He said slyly, holding it steadily above her reach.

Lily pouted, and tried to reach it. 'Pleeeeze?'

'Nope.'

Lily sighed, she knew her dad wouldn't give in. He was big on surprises.

'Come-on, lets go. I want to show Petunia my wand.' Lily told him evilly, making him laugh.

'Please, I'm begging you, don't turn your sister into a slug, your mother would kill me.'

'I don't need to turn her into a slug Dad.' Lily reminded him.

'You be nice to your sister.' He chuckled.

***

As they were driving home, Lily kept looking at the parcel in the back seat that her dad had bought. It had _air_ _holes_ in it. What on earth could be in there that need air holes?

They pulled into their driveway. It had stopped raining again, but was still very wet. She struggled with all her parcels while her dad carried the mystery package.

Inside her mother and sister were sitting in the living room having a heart-to-heart talk (probably about _Vernon_). She ran upstairs and dumped her parcels on her bed.

She ticked off another day on her calendar and counted the days until September the 1st. 

Only 12 more days. Lily re-opened her book and continued reading.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

That's it folks!

I hope you liked this one, because I've been dying to write a fanfic about Lily. Anyhow, please review (reviews make me write faster).


	2. Waterlily's 2

The remaining days of the school holidays passed very slowly for Lily. True, she was nervous and scared at the prospect of going to a new school where she hardly new anyone, but she couldn't ever remembering wanting to get away from her sister this much.

She was a nightmare. Whenever they were in the same room she'd insult Lily and shoot her dark and dangerous looks. The only thing that saved Lily from a painful and horrible death was the fact that she did have a wand. 

Her mother wasn't a great help either. She seemed to feel sorry for Petunia because Lily had been getting all the attention lately, so Petunia was favored enourmously.

Her father still wasn't letting Lily see what was in the box that he had brought home. He said he'd show her on her last day at home.

* * * * *

Lily invited her friends from primary school over a lot. They kept on insisting that they'd see each other heaps, and if they didn't, they could always call each other, or write. Lily knew it couldn't work though. Telephones didn't work at Hogwarts (something she had found out in Hogwarts; a History) and she didn't think they'd be able to get used to owl post.

One hot afternoon, her friend Cara was over and they were listening to her new CD player.

'You know Lil,' Cara started suddenly. 'It's a shame your not going to Yates High School with the rest of us. It was rumoured that Bill Harlington was going to ask you out next year.'

Lily's jaw dropped. 'You're kidding me!' She cried. Bill was this georgeouss, faultless guy who she had had a crush on for the last two years. 'Where did you hear that?'

'From Nichole Bench. And she'd know it.'

'Yeah, she was in that circle wasn't she.' Lily still couldn't believe it, but Nichole had been known to know this stuff before it did happen. 'Damn, why couldn't he of asked me while we were still at school?'

'Because he loves you, and he was too shy, and because he didn't think you'd say yes.' She said this very airily and dreamily, fluttering her eyebrows at Lily.

'Shut-up!' Lily threw a pillow at her. 'And when are you and Paul going on your first date?'

'Well, since he hasn't talked to me since I said I'd go out with him, I'm guessing it wasn't meant to be.' She sighed loudly and fakely.

Lily rolled her eyes at her friend.

'Are there any guys at your boarding school Lil?' She asked.

'Yeah, actually, I ran into one while I was buying my school stuff.'

'Really? Was he cute?'

Lily thought for a moment. 'Well, he wasn't ugly, but he wasn't my type.'

'You know what your type is?' She asked with raised eyebrows. 'Anyway, what was he like?'

'He kept trying to get my name.'

'And you gave it to him, right?'

'No.'

Now it was Cara's turrn to drop her jaw. 'You mean a cute guy from your new school comes up to you, clearly wanting to talk (or more than talk) to you, and you don't even tell you your name?'

'Like I said –he wasn't my type.'

'Lily my dear, you didn't know him!'

'Exactly my point!'

Cara sighed and flopped backwards on Lily's bed. She might have been one of the smartest girls last year, but she was still totally nieve when it came to guys.

* * * * *

Finally, June the 31st came. Lily woke up at nine and headed sleepily downstairs.

When she entered the kitchen she saw her dad standing behind the table smiling at her.

He motioned to a cardboard box on the table, and she curiously moved forward to see what was in it.

A little white kitten with grey streaks through it's fur was curled up in a corner asleep.

'Oh it's beautiful.' She cooned. 'Thank-you Dad.'

She walked over to him and gave him a big hug.

'Your welcome, she's just 8 weeks old.'

Lily nodded, she was watching the kitten, who had just given a small yawn and looked up.

* * * * *

Lily awoke the next day with a stomach full of lead. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what was going to happen that day. It was something important. She opened her eyes and looked at her alarm clock. It was 8:15. Next to her clock lay a wand.

Hogwarts!

She jumped out of bed and hurriedly got dressed. She had packed her trunk the night before, so she hauled it downstairs.

Her family was eating breakfast around the kitchen table.

'Morning Lily.' Said her dad cheerfully. 'When does your train leave again?'

'11:00, from Kingscross Station.'

'11:00? Sorry dear, but I can't take you then. I've got to get to the airport at 9. You'll have to get a lift with Petunia and your Mum.'

'What?' Petunia dropped her piece of toast. 'She can't come with us! I'll be late for my first day of school. And Kingscross is on the other side of London!'

'Don't worry Petunia, I'll take you to school first.' Lily's Mother looked at Lily. 'Your train doesn't leave untill 11 after all.'

'But it takes 2 hours to get to Kingscross from Pettunia's school, and half an hour to get there from here! We won't have time!' Lily told her anxiously

'We'll make it.' Said her mother calmly.

'No we won't!'

'Well, I'm off.' Lily's father said suddenly. He kissed his wife goodbye and gave Lily a big hug. 'You behave at Hogwarts, you hear?'

'I will Dad,' She looked at her mother. 'As long as I get there.'

'You will.' He gave one last wave, then grabbed his suitcase and hurried out the door.

'Hurry up Petunia!' Lily urged.

Petunia just smiled and calmly took a bite of her toast.

* * * * *

15 minutes later, they were in the car ready to go.

Lily's trunk was in the boot, and the kitten (who she had decided to christen Iris after one of the Egyptian gods) was in a cage on her lap, purring contentedly.

Petunia's first day back started at 9:00. Her mother drove the car as fast as she could down the many London roads.

They reached Petunia's school and she grabbed her bag and ran off, 'I'm 5 minutes late!' She called to them angrily.

Lily stayed in the backseat of the car. Her mother backed up and turned the car around before speeding off to get to Kingscross. 

Time ticked by quickly. Lily kept on checking her watch.

9:27.

9:50.

10:14.

10:45.

At 10:50 they pulled into the station.

'Bye Mum!' Lily called, quickly getting out of the car. 

She threw open the boot and struggled to get her trunk out. With one hand she supported Iris' cage, and with the other she pulled her trunk behind her. 

She found a trolley near the enterence and hauled her stuff into it. 

10:54.

She hurriedly ran the trolley into the station and looked around for platform 9¾. There was only platform 9 and platform 10.

She groaned and checked her watch again.

10:56.

She wheeled her trolley up to the barrier between the two, and stared at it, not knowing how to get through.

'Help!' She moaned silently to herself. She looked around for someone who might know how to get through. There was no-one. Everone else in the station looked as though they were muggles.

'Let me through!' She demanded of the barrier. 'I havn't got time for this!'

She started to get really distressed. She looked at her watch again.

10:59.

She banged her fist on the barrier angrily, only it didn't bang. It went through. 

Without thinking, she instinctively pushed her trolley through the barrier, just as the clock at the entrance of the station began to chime.

"Dong…Dong…Dong…' She heard a puffing sound. She looked around and saw a scarlet steam train getting ready to move.

'Wait!' She called at it.

'Dong…Dong…Dong…'

She ran her trolley closer to the edge of the platform. 'Stop!' She yelled at it.

'Dong…Dong…Dong…'

The train blew a big puff steam and gave a whistle.

'Dong…Dong…Dong'

The train started to roll away down the tracks.

'No!' She shouted. 'Wait! Stop!'

The train sped up and disappeared behind a corner.

Lily stood, stunned for a moment. Her trip to Hogwarts had just left without her.

She couldn't explain how she was feeling right that moment. It was a combination of hopelessness, anger, fear and despair.

'Um, excuse me Miss?' A voice from behind her made her jump.

She whirled around, her heart beating fast.

A man of about 50 was standing at the back of the platform. 

'Are you meant to be on that train?' He asked her kindly.

Lily sighed. 'Yes, I am.'

'Hi, I'm Geffory Brown. The conductor for the Hogwarts Express. And you are?'

'Lily, Lily Evans.'

'If you want I'll write to Hogwarts and tell them to send someone to pick you up.'

'Oh, yes please, that'd be fantastic.' Lily said excitedly.

Geffory smiled. 'Come with me.' He told her.

He led her through a small door to the right of the platform into a small, dusty office.

He sat down at the desk and motioned for Lily to have a seat opisite him. She sat down and watched him pull out a quill and a piece of parchment.

He began to write, and Lily read it upside-down.

Dear ProfessorMcGoanagall,

When the Hogwarts Express left this morning a student called Lily Evans was left behind on the platform. It would be greatly appreciated if you could send someone to pick her up.

Your's truely,

Geffory Brown.

__

He then rolled up the parchment and gave it to a brown barn--owl who Lily hadn't noticed sitting by the window.

Iris looked up and meowed at it before the owl took of through the window with the note clutched in his talons.

'It might take a little while for them to receive it, Hogwarts is a long way off.' Geffory told her.

Lily nodded. 'Thank-you.'

Iris started pacing her cage and miowing.

'You can let 'er out if you want.' He told Lily.

'Ok then.' She undid the latch on the cage and lifted Iris out. She was only 20cms long.

Lily sighed and looked out the window at the busy streets. 'Can't the people out there see in?' She asked him curiously.

'Nah, it's got a charm on it, from the outside, the window just looks like a brick wall.' He opened his desk drawer again and pulled out a pack of cards. 'Do you play snap at all?'

* * * * *

At around 5:00, Lily saw Geffory's owl flying outside.

She pointed that out to him, and he opened the window and it flew inside, dropping a note on the desktop before settling ddown in his cage again for another nap.

Geffory unrolled the note and read it out loud to Lily.

'Dear Geffory, and Lily.

I'm sorry that Lily missed the train, I'll send Hagrid to came and pick her up as soon as he gets in. He'll probably get there at six, so be ready to leave immediatly.

~Professor McGonagall.'

Lily gave a little sigh of relief. She hadn't liked being a burden on Geffory at all, not that he was horrible or anything, but he probably would have had somewhere to go if she hadn't been late. Bloody Petunia. 

* * * * *

True enough, at around 6:00 someone knocked on the office door.

'Come-in.' Geffory called.

The door opened and Lily gasped softly. Standing in the doorway was a huge man, nearly 3 times as large as Geffory. His hair was wild and untamed, and his eyes were black.

' 'Ello. I'm Hagrid, you must be Lily.'

Lily nodded timedly. 'Hi.' She said weakly.

'Well, thank-you Geffory, we'd better be getting back to 'ogwarts now, don' want t' miss too much of the sorting.'

'The what?' Lily asked. 

'You'll see when you get there.' Hagrid told her smiling. 'Anyway, bye Geffory, I'll be seein' ya round.'

'Yeah, bye Geffory.' Lily said. 'Thanks for everything, sorry about all this.'

'That's ok Lily, it was a pleasure.'

Lily locked a Iris in her cage and followed Hagrid outside.

When Lily stepped outside, her jaw dropped. 

Squeezed onto the tiny platform was a private jet. 

'Yeh like it?' Hagrid asked her, pleased with her reaction. 'On'y borowin' it from a friend for today, no other way we coulda got you, see.'

Lily nodded and peered through the jet's tiny window. It looked very comfy inside.

'Luggage in here.' Hagrid told her, opening a hatch on the side of it.

She dumped her trunk inside and carried Iris into the jet and sat down.

It was really roomy inside, you couldn't of guessed from the out side though. Hagrid got in after her and started the engine. 

10 minutes later they were flying over London. Hagrid had pushed a button to make it invisible so no one would see them fly out of the station.

Lily was silent for most of the trip, she just looked out the windows at the world below them.

'Hagrid,' she started. 'What's it like at Hogwarts?'

He looked at her and smiled. 'Ah, it's the best place in the world.'

Lily smiled aswell and nodded.

* * * * *

2 hours later, at Hogwarts, the first years who_ had_ gotten on the Hogwarts Express waited nervously for the signal from Professor McGonagall to file into the great hall to be sorted.

Jasmine looked around her. Everyone looked terrified. One fat little boy had started wimpering.

__

Why? She asked herself. They were only going to try on a hat. Her brother had told her so. He had also said alot of good things about Slytherin, but she had heard more bad things. What would her family do if she wasn't put in Slytherin? They'd probably move her to a different school. She really hoped she wasn't chosen as a Slytherin. She didn't fancy having the rest of the school hhate her for the rest of her schooling life.

And where _is _Lily?

She looked around the crowd again. One boy with long, dark hair tied back in a ponytail saw her looking and smiled at her. 

He moved over to her.

'Hello.' He said.

'Hi.' She smiled back at him.

'I'm Sirius Black, and who might you be?' He asked her.

'I might be Jasmine Avery.' She answered.

'Avery. That name sounds familier somehow.' He shrugged. 'Oh well, do you have any idea what house you're going to be in?'

Jasmine didn't answer for a moment. 'No, not a clue.' She said finally. 'Do you?'

He was about to answer when the door opened and Professor McGonagall stepped into the room, all talk ceased imidiatly.

'They are waiting for you in the great hall.' She told them. 'Please form a line and follow me.'

They did so and were led into an enormus room, filled with kids all staring at them curiously. 

Jasmine gulped. A wave of nervousness passed over her. She hated people looking at her, it made her really self-concious.

When they were all lined up facing the ocean of students, everyone turned to watch as Professor McGonagall placed a stool infront of a table with who Jasmine guessed were the teachers sitting at it.

She then placed an old hat that had been torn and repaired alot over it's years on the stool. Everyone stared at the hat, as though waiting for something. Jasmine looked at it too. After a moment, a rip formed just above the brim of it, and it began to sing;

__

"Oh tell me a tale,

as big as a whale,

of four wizards known far and wide.

These four were greater than great, 

So they formed Hogwarts on their side..."

It went on about the different houses and their basic characteristics, all of which Jasmine knew already. 

When it was done, the rip closed, and Professor McGonagall took out a roll of parchment.

'When I call out your name, please step out of line and place the Sorting Hat over your head. When it calls out your house, please make your way over to that table.' She looked down at the roll and called out the first name on the list. 'Avery, Jasmine.'

Jasmine's knee's shaked as she walked up to the stool and sat down on it. She avoided looking at all the staring faces, and placed the hat on her head, where it came down past her eyes.

__

'Hello.' A voice in her head said to her.

'Hi.' She thought back.

__

'Where to put you?' The voice wondered aloud. '_This is very difficult. I can't remember a case quite like this.'_

'Why am I so strange?' She thought.

__

'No no, not that your strange, just that, well, I'm not sure where you belong. Although you're very brave, and smart, you love to get your own way, and I'm almost certain you belong in Slytherin.'

'Slytherin?' She thought sadly. 'I don't want to be in Slytherin.'

__

'Yes, I can see that. That's very clear. Well, you're sure that you'd rather be anywhere but Slytherin, and I don't believe your fit to be a Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff is out of the question completley, you're now officially a **Gryffindor!**'

Jasmine gave a heavy sigh of relief as she heard the hat shout out her house. She got off the stool and placed the hat on it instead. She walked over to the table that was cheering and cat-calling for her and sat down at it, her face hidden by her hands. Although relieved, she felt a bit nausious. She had almost been put in the worst house their is.

She heard McGonagall call out the Sirius' name and she looked up. He didn't look nervous at all. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

He walked up to the hat with a big grin on his face and eagerly stuffed it on his head, but not before winking encouragingly at Jasmine.

In no time at all, the hat shouted out "**Gryfindor!**" to the rest of the hall. Jasmine clapped and cheered loudly with the rest of her table as Sirius took off the hat and started bowing to everyone in the hall. 

He didn't stop untill Professor McGonagall walked stiffly up to him and muttered something to him that Jasmine couldn't hear. He then walked over to the Gryfindor table and sat down next to her.

'Hello again.' He said happily. 'You took a long time to be chosen.' He commented.

Jasmine looked puzzled. 'I did?' She asked.

'Yeah, about 5 minutes. What houses' was he debating with?'

'All of them.' She said stiffly, not really wanting to continue the subject.

Sirius got the message and fell silent.

They watched as Naomy Blake became a Ravenclaw, and Justin Botch became a Hufflepuff. 

Narcissa Carle became a Slytherin.

Lucy Drape became a Ravenclaw, after a minute of waiting.

Then McGonagall read out; "Evans, Lily." No-one came forward.

Jasmine looked around. Whisper's filled the hall.

McGonagall went up to the teachers' table and spoke briefly to an old man with a long silvery beard.

Then she adressed the school. 'There has been a slight delyay with this student.' She told them. 'I'm informed that she will be here shortly. In the meantime, let's continue.' She looked back down at the list. 'Fu, David.'

More and more students were sorted into their houses.

Immeadiatly after James Potter was called, the doors to the great hall burst open and Hagrid came through, followed by Lily.

James looked at Lily and waved. She didn't return the wave, she just stared in awe at the magnificant room she was standing in.

James continued looking at her, only faintly aware that McGonagall was calling him up to be sorted for the fourth time. 

****

'James Potter!' She almost shouted.

He looked up and realisation dawned on his face. He grinned and made his way up to the hat.

A minute later he was made a Gryfindor.

McGonagall cleared her throat. 'Lily, you can be sorted now.' She told her.

Lily nervously made her way up to the hat. So much had already happened today. She sat down on the stool feeling very stupid and put the hat on, wondering how it could decide what house she'd be in. 

'_Well, let's see now. Where shall I put you?'_ The Sorting Hat asked himself aaloud in her head. _'Your very quick-witted and smart I can see, but there is also alot of boldness and bravery. Yes, alot of bravery. Hmm, I think Gryfindor may be the way to go.' _And before Lily could react in anyway, the hat had already shouted out "**Gryfindor!"**

She took off the hat and replaced on the seat before walking down to the cheering table.

James had stopped talking to Sirius and stooden up to cheer Lily.

She glanced at him, before taking the seat next to him, oppisite Jasmine and Sirius.

'Hello Lily Evans.' James said pointedly while taking his seat next to her.

She looked at him as though daring him to say more, but remained silent.

'Oooo, do you two have a history?' Sirius asked eagerly.

'No, I don't even know him.' Lily told him.

'I am hurt Lily Evans. I really thought our time together meant more to you than that.' James said putting on a hurt face.

'Stop living in fantasy's James.' Lily told him.

'Lily, where were you?' Jasmine asked. 'Why didn't you take the train?'

'What?!' James said, as though that was the craziest thing he ever heard. 'Lily is _much_ too stylish, and fanciful, and graceful to take the _train_ to school. It would soil her feat.'

Lily hid a smile and ignored him. 'My sister _demanded_ to be dropped at school first, so I was late. I had to take a _private_ jet with Hagrid.'

'Cool. I'm Sirius by the way.'

'Nice to meet you Sirius, I'm Lily.'

'What so you give _him _your name?' James asked sourly.

Lily sighed and turned around to watch the rest of the student's get sorted.

The sorting finally ended with "Yang Jenny" becoming the last Hufflepuff.

The man with the silvery beared stood up to speak, and Lily could practically feel the respect he got from the older students.

'That's Professor Dumbledor.' James whispered to her. 'He's the headmaster.'

Lily nodded.

'Welcome students.' Dumbledore began. 'Back again in our humble halls. Before the feast begins, I'd just like you all to becareful this year. The world is not as peaceful as it was a couple of years ago, one very dark wizard has been roaming around. But anyway, I don't wish to spoil your appetites, you're all perfectly safe inside the walls of the castle. Eat up.'

And at his last words, golden platters on their table suddenly filled themselves with delicious food.

Lily was amazed. She'd never seen anything like it.

She looked at Jasmine to ask if this happened all the time in the wizarding world, but stopped at the sight of her.

'Jasmine, what's wrong? You're all pale.' She asked concerened.

Jasmine looked almost terrified. 

Sirius took her hand and felt it. 'You're all clamy. Look, don't worry about Dumbledore's speech, you heard him, nothing can get to us while we're in here. We're safe.'

'No, it's not that...' She started weakly, but then she must of realised what she was about to say, and quickly stopped. She smiled weakly. 'James, can you pass those chicken wings? I'm starving.'

Lily's stomach gave a rumble too and she realised that she hadn't eaten anything since Geffory gave her half his sandwich. She quickly loaded up her plate and began to eat at full speed.

'Hungry are you?' James asked her amazed.

She nodded greedily.

He looked as though he was about to say something, but suddenly thought better of it and started on a potato.

When all the food had been devoured, Dumbldore stood up to speak again.

'One last word before you make your way up to bed, as I seem to remind you every year, the forbiddon forest is out of bounds at all times. Well now I guess after your trip here your all pretty tired now, so I'll end my crazy ramblings. Goodnight everyone.'

He sat down again and watched the older students leaving the hall, as they knew where to go.

Lily stuck close to Jasmine, Sirius, and James who were following the Gryfindor prefects.

They were led up a million staircases, through a thousand hidden passages, and down a hundred corridors.

Finally, they stopped in front of a large portrait of a fat laady in a pink dress.

'Beaches.' One of the prefects told the fat lady, who swung the portrait open allwoing them to climb through.

Lily looked around her. The room was filled with scarlet armchairs and couches.

'Come-on Lily.' Jasmine pulled her towards the girls' staircase.

'Night _Lily Evans_. Night Jasmine.' James called to them.

The girls waved at them before disapearing upstairs.

They both fell asleep as soon as they lay down on their beds, exhausted from their busy days.

***************************************

And that is the end.

I hope you like it, I know some bits might have seemed a little bit unrealistic, like Lily's dad leaving her like that, and her mother favoring Lily (I know in the book it says that both parents talked about Lily constantly but who cares). Anyway, someone (can't remember who) made a good point about part 1 being in the wrong catagory, well, I fixed that now, so thanks. 

Anyway, please reveiw, thanks.


	3. Waterlily's 3

A/N: Ok, well, I tried to put this into HTML, but I'm at my Dad's house, and we've got a really crappy version of microsoft word here. Anyway, please read and review. Sorry it's so short.  
  
  
The next day when Lily awoke she looked around and smiled. Her first morning at Hogwarts. Yesterday's drama seemed so long ago. She rolled over and her eyes fell onto her alarm clock.   
5:58! She had never woken up this early on her own, at home, she would sleep in as long as she could, and today was a Sunday!   
She closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep, but she couldn't.  
She sighed and got up. She went into the bathroom and washed the sleep away from her eyes before dressing and going down into the common room.  
No body was up yet.  
She crossed the room and looked out the window at Hogwarts' grounds. It was amazing. In front of the castle was a large lawn, to the right was a huge, dark forest with a little hut next to it. A long way off Lily thought she could see a large lake.  
She heard a soft purr from next to her leg and looked down to find Iris looking up at her.  
'Hello dear.' She said softly, lifting her up so she could see the view. 'Isn't it amazing?' She whispered.  
Iris purred her approval.  
Lily thought she heard a door open and shut from one of the boys' dorms. She looked around and saw James coming down the stairs.  
He was smiling.  
'Morning.' He said when he saw her.  
'Morning.' Lily answered, turning back to look out the window again.  
James didn't take the hint. He walked over to her and looked over her shoulder. 'Wow.' He commented softly about the vass grounds. 'I'd never have thought Hogwarts was this big from the outside.'  
'It's made to look smaller.' She told him. 'Why are you in such a good mood anyway?' She asked curiously.  
'Oh you know, just seeing you here I guess.'  
She raised her eyebrows at him. 'Really?'  
'Would I lie to such a gorgeous gal?' He asked, almost seriously.  
'Let me think about that...yes.' She moved away from him and sat on one of the couches.  
'I don't believe you would think so low of me!' He exclaimed in an amazed tone.   
'Trust me, I've thought lower than that of you.' She told him.  
He looked hurt for a moment, then regained his usual grin and sat in an armchair next to the couch.  
He was silent for a moment; he just sat staring at her.  
'What? Do I have something in my teeth?' She asked him.  
'No, I was just thinking how lucky I am to know such a beautiful girl like you.'  
'Oh, I bet you say that to all the girls.' She said in an American accent. 'Besides, you don't know me.'  
'True, but you think you know me.' He told her plainly.  
'Meaning?' She asked him.  
'Meaning that you think you know what kind of guy I am from just looking at me. You haven't even given me a chance.'  
She chose not to reply to this predicament. Instead she just stroked Iris gently.  
'So, why do you hate me?' He asked her seriously.  
She looked up. 'Who said I hated you?'   
'So, your saying you like me?' He asked looking at her.  
'James, I hardly know you, I don't know enough about you to like or hate you.'  
'You don't seem to be making much of an effort to find out either.'  
'Well excuse me for not instantly falling in love with you as soon as I saw you!' She told him annoyed. 'I'm going for a walk.' She said, placing Iris on the cushion next to her.  
James sighed and watched the portrait door close behind her.   
Iris yawned and went back to sleep.  
* * * * *  
Lily walked down corridor after corridor, not really aware of where she was going.  
'What right did James have to question her like that?' She asked herself angrily. 'He didn't know her and she didn't know him. Why couldn't he just back off?'  
She looked around. All the paintings around her were snoozing gently.   
Lily shook herself mentally, paintings didn't snooze, they just stayed still.   
She looked right into the closest one. An Egyptian woman was sitting down, her head resting on the edge of her couch. Lily moved her head closer 'Was her body moving up and down while she breathed?'  
Suddenly, the lady woke up and looked around sharply.  
'What are you doing?' She asked angrily. 'How dare you wake me up!'  
Lily stepped back amazed. 'Uh...um...sorry.' She spluttered, before quickly continuing to walk down the corridor out of sight.  
She continued to walk up and down stairs, still not sure where she was going. She didn't really care though; she just wanted to be alone for a while.  
* * * * *  
Back in Gryffindor Tower, Jasmine had just woken up and realised that Lily wasn't in her bed.   
She got dressed, and went down to the common room to find James and Sirius talking.  
'Hi guys.' She said brightly to them.  
They stopped talking and turned around to look at her.   
'Morning.' Sirius said to her, motioning for her to sit down.  
'Have you guys seen Lily anywhere?' She asked them.  
Sirius looked at James.  
'She said she was going for a walk about two hours ago.' James told her.  
'She's probably at breakfast.' Sirius told them.  
James looked doubtful, but said nothing.  
* * * * *  
An hour later, Lily was still wandering the empty halls of Hogwarts. She was starting to get worried now. Hogwarts was a big place, and she had no idea where she was.  
Her stomach gave a rumble; she hadn't eaten anything since the feast yesterday.  
Suddenly, she heard a sound from around the corner.  
She ran around it and saw a boy about her age come out of a classroom.  
'Hello.' She said to him.  
He looked shocked to see her standing there, but then recovered. 'Hi.' He said.  
'Um, do you know how to get to the great hall?' She asked him. 'I'm kinda lost.'  
'Sure, follow me.' He told her.  
'I'm Lily Evans by the way.'  
'Severus Snape.'   
* * * * *  
James, Jasmine and Sirius had all gone down to the great hall expecting to find Lily there.  
'Where is she?' Sirius asked looking around.  
'She has a habit of not showing up.' Jasmine commented.  
'She's probably lost in one of the halls somewhere.' Sirius said, only half joking. 'What did you say to her James?'  
'I didn't say anything to her!' He told them outraged. 'I'm going to look for her.'  
He walked out of the great hall ignoring Jasmine and Sirius' protests.  
He was halfway down a corridor one floor above when he spotted Lily and Snape walking together down it.  
'Lily!' He cried out.  
She looked up and frowned. 'What are you doing here James?' She asked annoyed.  
'Looking for you.' He walked over to her and stared daringly at Snape. 'What's he doing here?' He asked her.  
'What's it to you?'   
'Don't you know he's a Slytherin?' He hissed at her.  
'And you said I judged people before I knew them!' She told him angrily.  
'Oh, and how well do you know him exactly?'  
Snape, who had been keeping quiet, finally spoke. 'Back off Potter, it'd be a shame if you had to be sent home because of a critical condition before the first lesson.' He turned to Lily. 'I've got to go now, I'll see you around.'  
'Bye Severus.' Lily called after him as he made his way back down the corridor from which they had come.   
When he was out of sight, Lily rounded on James.  
'What is your problem?' She asked, her voice trembling with anger.  
'What were you doing with Snape?'  
'Why is it your business?'  
'He's a Slytherin Lily!'  
'Why are you acting so jealous anyway?' She shouted at him. 'You don't know what he's like! You've just got a serious problem!'  
'I do know what Snapes like Lily! I know him!' He was shouting too now.  
'No you don't! You know that he's a Slytherin, that's all!' And with that she walked down into the entrance hall to see people looking curiously at her. 'What?' She snapped at them.   
She went into the great hall and helped herself to a sausage that was on the platter in front of her.  
* * * * *  
Later that same day, in the Gryffindor common room, Jasmine and Sirius sat with James trying to find out what went on with him and Lily.  
'Come on James!' Sirius urged. 'Just tell us, we won't tell anyone.'  
'No.' James said tonelessly.  
'Please?' Jasmine begged him.  
'No.'  
'We're going to find out anyway, so you may as well just tell us.'  
'How're you going to find out?' James asked them.  
'Lily.' They chorused at him.  
As if on que, Lily opened the portrait door from the outside and climbed inside.  
She walked over to them, looking at James.  
'Lily, can you please tell us what James said to you before breakfast?' Sirius asked, shooting a sideways look at James.  
'No.' Lily told him in the same tone as James had.  
James smirked at Sirius.  
'James, I need to talk to you.' She told him, before walking out of the common room.  
James quickly got up and hurried after her.  
She was waiting just outside the portrait door. Her face showed no emotion that he recognised.  
When she saw him, she beckoned for him to follow her, and walked out of the castle and down to the lake.  
She sat down on a bench and waited for him to sit down next to her.  
'Look, Lily, about what happened today, -' Lily held up a hand to stop James.  
'I know, we both over-reacted. Let's just forget the whole thing even happened.' She said looking at him.  
'Yeah, good idea.' James looked at her, the moonlight was reflecting off the lake onto her face. 'Would now be a good time to tell you that you're really pretty?' He asked her.  
Lily looked away from him into the lake in an attempt to hide her blush.  
James took her chin with his hand and gently turned her face towards him.  
He leaned forward and-  
'You know what?' Lily said suddenly, leaning back the tiniest bit. 'It's kinda chilly out here, lets go back up to the castle.'  
James cursed mentally and bit his lip, but nodded and escorted her back to the common room silently.  
When they reached the fat lady, James gave her the password and was about to climb through, but Lily grabbed his arm to stop him.  
'I'm sorry James.' She said to him.  
He shrugged and put on a smile. 'Don't worry about it.' He told her, before going through the portrait hole.  
Lily sighed and climbed through after him.  
**************************************************************************  
Ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry, I just felt like doing that, I'm fine now. Anyway, please review this fic, I need reviews I tell you.   
Anyway, I'll try and work Moony and Wormtail into the next fic. Thanks for reading.  



	4. Waterlily's 4

Hi again. Thanks for all your reviews for the previous fics; most of them have been great. Anyway, I just realised, I've been forgetting to write disclaimers. Anyway, this one's for all of them, any characters that you recognize belong to JKR. If I owned them and Hogwarts, I wouldn't be writing fanfics, would I?

Anyway, a little while ago I got a review saying that Lily & co didn't act like 11 year olds, and that is true, so I now officially pronounce them all to be older than 11.

Anyway, I'm going to stop ranting now.

******************************************* 

'Lily…' Jasmine started, trying to sound innocent.

'Yes Jasmine?' Lily answered calmly.

'What's going on between you and James?'

'Nothing.' Lily could tell that Jasmine didn't believe her. 'Look Jasmine, seriously, there is nothing going on between James and me.'

'If that's the case why is he shooting glances over at you?'

'He is not.' Lily told her, looking over at James who was deeply involved in a conversation with Sirius and two other Gryffindor boys.

One of the boys, who had light brown hair, looked over at Lily and nudged James.

She quickly looked back to her uneaten breakfast.

'Lily, you've got to eat you know.' Jasmine told her forcefully.

'I'm not hungry.' Lily told her.

Jasmine sighed and started on a piece of toast.

Lily opened her bag and took out her timetable.

'Lily will you stop checking that thing?' Jasmine asked her. 'Your making me nervous.'

Lily sighed, and continued looking at it. Their first lesson was Herbology. Whatever that was.

Lily snuck another look at James. He looked like his usual self again.

Suddenly, the bell rang for them to go to there first class.

Lily got up quickly and stuffed her timetable back in her bag.

'Lily, slow down, we're not going to be late.' Jasmine told her, getting up calmly.

'Sorry, I'm just nervous.' Lily took a couple of deep breaths.

'I know, so am I a bit.' Jasmine admitted.

'What are we talking about?' Sirius asked, popping up beside them suddenly, and was closely followed by James, and the two other boys.

'Nothing of importance.' Jasmine told him vaguely, looking at the boys.

'Oh, this is Remus and Peter.' James told them. 'They're Gryffindors too.'

'Hi. I'm Lily and this is Jasmine.' Lily told them. 'She turned to Jasmine. 'Can we go now, I really don't want to be late for our first class.'

'What? Oh yeah, sure.' 

They all made their way out of the castle and down to the first greenhouse where a couple of Hufflepuffs were waiting.

Peter looked almost more nervous than Lily, if that was possible, but no one noticed, they were too busy trying to peer in through the greenhouse windows. 

They weren't very successful; the windows were all fogged up.

'Hello dears.' Everyone turned around to face a short, plump, young witch who was wearing a pair of dragon hide gloves. 'I'm Professor Sprout, your Herbology teacher.'

She walked to the door and unlocked it, then ushered them all inside.

It was very humid in the greenhouse. There seemed to be almost no oxygen.

Lily felt something move on her arm. Slowly, she turned around to see a large, fury, purple plant edging its way up to her shoulder. 

She gave a small squeal and jumped away, straight into James' arms.

James looked down into her eyes. 'Whoa, calm down Lily.' He told her, still holding onto her.

Lily took a deep breath, then realised that she was in James' arms. She started to struggle, and he reluctantly let go.

There was an awkward silence. 'Sorry about that.' Lily said sheepishly, straightening up.

'Don't worry about it.' He told her kindly.

Just then, Professor Sprout began to speak about the different greenhouses.

After Sprout had finished speaking, she put everyone into groups of four and told them to replant a pile of bulbs. 

Lily was put into a group with two Hufflepuff girls and Remus.

Remus reached for a bulb, then turned to Lily.

'Are you and James dating?' He blurted out curiously.

The Hufflepuff girls looked up.

'No.' Lily said irritated. 'We are not dating, why?'

'Because you were both shooting glances at each other at breakfast.' He told her knowledgably. 

'That doesn't mean we're going out.' She told him. 'Or going to go out.' She added.

'Yeah, whatever.'

Lily looked at the window of the greenhouse. In it, she could see James' reflection. He looked bored, but not disturbed by the fact that he had been rejected the previous night. 

She started to repot the bulbs. She was glad James wasn't upset, but he could at least show some emotion.

* * *

After an hour of bulbs and dirty finger nails, the bell rang for the class to end.

Lily swung her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the greenhouse. 

Once outside, she leant against a nearby tree and breathed in fresh air.

The others joined her a minute later. 

'What do we have now?' Jasmine asked.

Lily took out her timetable. '…. Potions, with the Slytherins.' She told them, not looking anywhere in James' direction.

* * *

20 minutes later, when they had washed all the dirt off their hands and gotten their books, they entered the dungeon.

The Slytherins were already waiting there. 

Snape nodded at Lily, who smiled back. James' scowled, but said nothing.

The Gryffindors all took seats on the opposite side of the room. James sat down on Lily's right, blocking her from Snapes view.

A moment later, their professor came through the door.

'Good morning students.' A rather ugly witch hissed to the class. 'I am Professor Strapp-' James snorted, and Lily kicked him under the table. Luckily, Strapp didn't hear, and she continued. 'You are here to learn about the intensity and power of potion brewed correctly. Although many think differently, this is not an easy class. Potion brewing is a fine art, I do not believe that many of you have what it takes.' She said this all very softly, but Lily caught every word. 'Today, we will be preparing the ingredients of a simple Ageing potion.' 

They got out their supplies and began cutting up rat-tails and boiling beetles.

Strapp kept walking around the tables, criticising Gryffindors, and praising Slytherins.

'Mr Black, do you think you could try to cut up your ingredients a little neater?'

'Potter! Will you stop glaring at the Slytherins and do some work?'

'Evans, please refrain from talking to Avery during my class. You both need to concentrate much harder.'

They worked in silence, occasional whispers broke out from some of the students, but Strapp immediately silenced them by giving out deadly glares.

Finally, the bell rang for them to go to lunch. 

Everyone hurriedly packed up their things, and stampeded out of the dungeon.

Once they were out of earshot, they broke out into talk.

'Can you believe Strapp?' Sirius asked outraged.

'She's a demon!' James told them.

'I doubt that hairs even real.' 

'Yeah, her whole face is probably a mask to hide the fact that she's a dragon!'

* * *

Late that night, in the Gryffindor common room, Jasmine and Lily sat by the fire. The guys had all disappeared somewhere.

Jasmine suddenly spoke. 'Lily, I know your probably not going to tell me, but what went on with you and James last night?'

Lily was silent.

'Look, I know something happened.' Jasmine urged her.

Lily sighed. 'Alright, we went down to the lake and made-up. Then he tried to kiss me.'

Whatever Jasmine had expected, it wasn't that. 'He _did?'_ She asked amazed. 'What did you do?'

'I stopped him, then we went back up to the castle.'

Jasmine gave her a puzzled look. 'Why didn't you just kiss him back?' She asked.

'Because I didn't want to.' Lily told her hotly. 'Just because every other girl in the school likes James Potter that doesn't mean I have to! I'm going to bed.' And with that, she stormed up the girls staircase into their dorm leaving Jasmine to sit stunned in the common room.

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, about a thousand post-owls flew into the hall and started delivering letters.

Jasmine was sipping on her pumpkin juice, but she spat it out when she saw a large jet-black owl drop a scarlet letter onto her plate.

She uttered an indistinct word, grabbed the letter and ran from the hall as fast as she could.

James looked at Lily. 'What's with her?' He asked her.

'Dunno, she took one look at her letter and then started running.' Lily told him confused. 

'Uh oh.' Sirius said solemnly. 'She got a howler. But she hasn't even had time to do anything wrong.'

'What's a howler?' Lily asked confused.

James shuddered. 'Bad news. Parents send them when they're _really_ pissed.'

Lily nodded, and got up to follow Jasmine.

She rushed out into the entrance hall and looked around Jasmine was no where to be seen. She started to head back into the great hall, until suddenly she heard a loud voice coming from upstairs.

"**GRYFFINDOR!?! YOU GOT INTO GRYFFINDOR? HOW DARE YOU!! WHAT A DISGRACE! YOU'VE LET DOWN EVERYTHING YOUR MOTHER AND I BELIEVED IN! YOU'RE LUCKY YOU WEREN'T HERE WHEN WE RECEIVED THE LETTER FROM YOUR BROTHER TELLING US OF THIS…SITUATION! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY NAME!…'**

It went on in this vane for some time. When it stopped, Lily headed upstairs to look for Jasmine.

She found her sitting in an empty chamber. 

'Hi.'

Jasmine looked up. 'Oh, hi Lily.' 

She looked upset, but before Lily could ask what was wrong, the bell rang, and Jasmine quickly got up and rushed out.

'Come on Lily, we'll be late!'

* * * 

The next few weeks passed amazingly fast for Lily. 

Jasmine refused to answer any questions about the howler by quickly changing the subject.

James and Sirius had discovered a passage out of the castle already so they wasn't spending much time in the common room, when they were though, you could definitely tell. They didn't seem to understand the concept of "being quiet" very well. 

One time when Lily was concentrating on her Potions assignment that was due the next day, James and Sirius decided they'd _liven_ up the common room a bit. So they brought in a whole box of fireworks and set them off.

Lily was also becoming quite good friends with Snape. Something that her Gryffindor friends, especially James, were quick to pick up on. But she paid them no attention, she couldn't understand why everyone thought he was so bad. He seemed quite nice to her, she tried to make her friends see that, but they wouldn't listen. They insisted that he was a horrible part human incapable of any humane thoughts and emotions.

So in what seemed like no time at all, the Christmas holidays approached, and Professor McGonagall came round with a list of people staying for Christmas.

Lily watched as her Jasmine and Sirius put their names down, James said he spent enough time at school already.

'James, you spend half-of your school time, out of school.' Lily told him.

'Yeah, but the teachers _think_ I'm in school, so they count it as school time.'

Lily looked at him confused, but decided not to answer back. She was looking forward to seeing her old friends too much to care what James was doing.

* * * 

Finally, the day came for Lily to board the Hogwarts Express to go home. 

She hugged Jasmine and Sirius goodbye. 

'Gee, maybe I should have stayed to get a hug.' James said to them all.

Lily rolled her eyes and ignored him. 'Bye guys, see you in two weeks, send me lots of owls.'

'Sure thing Lily.' Jasmine said cheerfully.

'You two behave yourselves now.' James told them.

'Yes Father.' Sirius said to him. 'Same to you on the train going home.'

James gave a small grin. 'See ya.' 

The horse-less carriages arrived and Lily and James hopped into one, waving good-bye to their friends.

When Hogwarts was out of view, Lily sat back in her seat and sighed.

'What?' James asked.

'Oh nothing, I'm just not looking forward to seeing my sister. She's a real bitch.'

'At least you have a sister, it gets really boring being the only child.'

'Yeah, but theirs no sibling rivalry or favoritism.'

'But you'd still have someone to talk to.'

Lily laughed. 'Not with my sister. She hates the fact I'm a witch. She doesn't stay in the same room as me except for meals anymore.'

They continued arguing about this until their carriage stopped at the Hogsmeade station.

The Hogwarts Express was already sitting on the tracks waiting for them.

James grabbed his and Lily's luggage and carried it into an empty compartment.

They sat down and Lily looked around her. Apart from it being very stylish, the train was basically like any ordinary muggle steam train.

She was quiet for most of the trip. James thought it was best just to leave her to her thoughts.

Finally, after it had grown dark, they reached Platform 9¾.

They took their luggage and got off the train.

Lily waved at Geffory, who was pairing students up to leave through the barrier, so the muggles didn't notice a whole lot of people appearing at once. He waved back.

Lily and James went out together.

'Well, I'll see you back here at the end of the hols then.' Lily said to him.

'Yeah, I guess.' James said. 'Bye then.'

'Yeah, bye.' Lily spotted her parents hovering by the entrance to the station. 

She headed over to them waving goodbye to James. Petunia wasn't with them surprise surprise.

'Lily!' Her dad called out.

'Hi Dad, hi Mum.' Lily said.

'How was your school?' Her mum asked.

'Fine.' Lily told them smiling.

****************************************************

Well, that's that, I'm gonna write the next part soon, but it probably won't be up for a couple of day's 'cause I'm going to the beach tomorrow. 

Sorry this part took so long, but I got writers block during the middle of it. 

Please review. Make me smile. J


	5. Waterlily's 5

A/N: Ok, guess what? I forgot all about poor Iris in the last one, oh well, she was magiced to Lily's house over the holidays. Sorry for the delay, but since it's the holidays and I had next to nothing to do all week, I just couldn't be bothered. Plus I typed half of this, then lost the disk so I had to re-type it (it isn't as good anymore, oh well) please review at the end. _And please don't flame me for what I'm working up to._

*********************************************************************

The Christmas holidays came and went, Petunia was being the biggest bitch she had ever been. 

It seemed that she had spent the whole term thinking up ways to make Lily feel unwelcome. She never did or said anything in front of Lily's parents, but as soon as they left the room, she would plunge into a harsh description of a medieval witch burning. 

Lily's friends from primary school were always to busy to talk to Lily for long, for some strange reason, Lily had a feeling they were avoiding her. It was all very strange.

Anyway, when the day came for Lily to return to Kingscross to board the Hogwarts Express, she was all packed and ready. Her mother was taking her this time. 

She dropped Lily off with 15 minutes to spare, and Lily was left to carry her trunk and Iris' cageinto the station by herself. 

She walked calmly through the barrier, closing her eyes as she passed through the stone.

Once she was through, she looked around. The scarlet steam train was already awaiting the students. She stood still for a moment, looking around for a friendly first year she recognised, suddenly, something rushed into her from behind, causing her to fall to the ground.

'Oh, God, sorry.' Lily got up and turned to face one of Sirius and James' friend.

'That's ok, I shouldn't of been standing so close to the barrier anyway.' She said smiling. 'Remus right?'

'Yeah, have you seen James or Peter anywhere?'

'Nuh, maybe they're on the train.' 

He nodded tiredly, and they made their way onto the train.

They searched the train, but Peter and James weren't to be found, they found a spare compartment and Remus leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

He looked so very tired that Lily decided to let him rest. She looked out the window at the number of students who were gradually moving onto the train.

Suddenly, through the crowd, she spotted James and Peter running as fast as they could towards the train. 

She looked behind them and saw a very angry (and dirty) looking Snape running after them. He looked angry.

James and Peter jumped into the train and rushed into the compartment panting heavily. They both collapsed into the seats the compartment had to spare.

When James had recovered after a minute, he looked up and saw Lily and Remus looking expectantly at him.

'Oh, hi.' He said grinning from ear to ear. 'How were your holidays?' He asked.

'Fine.' They said together.

'What did you do to Severus, James?' Lily asked hesitantly.

'We bombed him with dungbombs.' James told her, as though this was as normal as eating toast.

Lily sighed and shook her head in disbelief.

Just then, the compartment door opened, and a very angry Snape barged through. He looked as though he had tried to wipe the gunk off his face.

'Potter! Pettigrew!' He started angrily. 'You two are going to pay for this.' He told them icily.

'Why Snape?' James asked innocently. 'We were only trying to make you wash your hair, I mean, it _really does need it...'_

The boys cracked up, Peter chuckling, but looking very nervous.

Snape reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand, getting ready to curse the compartment.

'Hi Severus.' Lily said quickly so he wouldn't do anything rash.

Snape, realising she was there for the first time, quickly changed his attitude. 'Oh, hi Lily. Did you get my owl?' He asked in a totally different voice. James stopped laughing and quickly looked up at Snape, as though daring him to continue talking to Lily.

'...Er no. Did you send one?' Lily asked confused.

'Yeah, it probably got lost again. I'm getting a new one during the summer holidays though.'

'Oh, that's good.'

James stood up now. 'Ok Snape, well it's been really great having you here, but I think it's time for you to leave.' He pushed Snape out of the compartment and magically sealed the door with his wand.

Lily frowned. 'James...' She started in an annoyed voice.

'Yes?' He asked innocently. 'I'm really sorry Lily, but I just couldn't stand his stench one minute more.'

'I personally agree with James.' Remus told her. 'I mean, did you smell him Lily? I mean he smelt of ...of dung.'

Lily did not look impressed. 

Peter just sank lower in his seat, being the babbling idiot he was, he couldn't stand the tension in the dimly lit compartment.

'So, anyone want to play exploding snap?' James asked cheerfully.

***

Hours later, they pulled into the Hogsmeade station. This time, the first years were not taken across the lake as it had frozen over. Instead, they lined up with the rest of the students to get into one of the horseless carriages. 

When they reached the entrance to the castle, they were ushered into the great hall where the student's who had remained behind were already waiting.

Lily sat down next to Jasmine, with James, Remus and Peter sitting across from them next to Sirius.

'Hi guys, how were your holidays?' Jasmine asked excitedly.

'They were great. How 'bout yours?'

'Oh well, you know,' Sirius leaned over and grabbed Jasmine's hand. 'I forgot to get her a Christmas present, so now we're engaged.'

'Oh? Is that how it works?' Lily asked in mock amazement.

'Of course it is.'

Just then, Dumbledore stood up to speak. 'Welcome back everyone; I trust you had a short, but none-the-less good Christmas. Anyway, please, tuck-in.'

The empty plates in front of them immediately filled with the delicious food only Hogwarts can produce.

They ate and talked and in what seemed like no time at all, everyone was trudging up sleepily to their common rooms and dorms.

***

The next morning Lily woke up at 6:30. She was used to this by now, as for all last term she had been waking up early. She reckoned it must have something to do with all the magic in the air.

She moved her legs, and Iris jumped off her bed grumpily.

Lily got up, and went down into the common room with her book from Christmas.

Half an hour later she was so busily entwined with the duel between Indigo and Wesley that she didn't notice a tapping sound on the common room window.

It grew louder, and she resentfully lifted her eyes from the page and looked to see what was making that sound.

An old looking owl was practically head butting the glass pain in eager attempts to escape from the cold winter snow that was drifting down into the Hogwarts grounds.

She quickly got up and let it in. 

The poor thing swooped gratefully inside and dropped a letter onto the armchair by the fire where she had been sitting.

She opened it and began to read the letter inside.

_ _

_Lily,_

_I'm really sorry about barging into your compartment yesterday._

_Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me with my astronomy assignment this Saturday. I'm not good at remembering all the different constellations._

_Severus Snape_

PS, This owl is Gewst. The owl famous for not delivering letters.

Lily smiled and reached for a quill and piece of parchment to write a reply.

_Severus,_

_Don't worry about barging in, it was James' fault you were covered in goo anyway.-_

'**It was not!' James' voice came from behind her and Lily flushed with anger.**

'**_James!' She cried angrily. She jumped up, and whirled around to face...nothing._**

Suddenly, James appeared, holding a silvery piece of material in his hands. 'It was _not my fault he got covered in goo.'_

'_How was it **not**__your fault?' She asked furiously. '__And what is that?' She asked motioning to what he was holding._

'It was not my fault because _he chose to stand in that particular part of the platform when the bombs went off, and _this_ is an invisibility cloak.' He told her proudly._

Lily scowled, obviously not as impressed with the cloak as he was. 'What were you doing reading over my shoulder anyway?' She demanded.

'I was curious to see what you were writing. And you weren't actually considering on going out with that…that Slytherin were you?'

Lily's blood boiled. 'My letter's are _my letters_ James! You have no right to read them! And for your information, I was planning on "_going out with that Slytherin_"! _Not_ that it's any of your business James!' And with that, she grabbed her stuff, and walked hotly up the stairs to her dormitory, leaving James to feel completely drained. 

'_They hadn't been back one whole day and Lily was already pissed with him, now does that seem familiar somehow?'_ He thought annoyed to himself.

***

Jasmine watched as Lily stormed into the dormitory angrily and sat cross-legged on her bed, stroking Iris rather more roughly than she meant to.

'Uh…good-morning Lily.' Jasmine said carefully.

'Not really.' Lily replied grumpily.

Jasmine sighed. 'Want to tell me about it?' She asked hopefully.

'No.' Lily said flately.

Jasmine waited, and then Lily lunged into a steady flow of talk.

'James is such a dickhead! He's acting as though we're going out! Honestly, it is _my_ choice who I spend my time with! And really, helping Severus with Astronomy _really_ doesn't count as a date anyway –not that it's any of James' business anyway! I mean, he shouldn't of been reading my letter anyway!-'

'_Hang-on Lily! _Slow down, what happened?' 

'I got a letter from Snape asking if I could help him with his astronomy, because you know that really isn't his best subject, and James snuck up behind me with his stupid invisibility cloak and read it over my shoulder! And now he's going on about how a Gryffindor dating a Slytherin isn't right, and we're not even going out! It's only me helping him with his astronomy! Honestly, James can be such a dick!' She said this all very fast.

'James has an invisibility cloak?' Jasmine asked in awe.

'Argh!' Lily cried angrily, grabbing her books and heading out back into the common room. She completely ignored James and opened the portrait door and hurried to the great hall for breakfast.

When she got to the entrance hall she was tapped on the back by someone.

'What?' She asked irritated. She turned around to face Snape. 'Oh, sorry Severus, morning.'

'Morning Lily. Did you get my owl this time?'

'Yeah, I was writing a reply, but I was interrupted…' She sighed and brushed a strand of her red hair off her face. 'Anyway, sure, I'd love to help you with Astronomy. I'll meet you in the tower at about ten ok?'

'Yep, that's fine thanks.' Snape smiled ((for the first time in his life…)) and walked over to Slytherin table in the great hall.

Lily made her way over to the Gryffindor table.

A moment after she had sat down, she was joined by one of the girls in her dormitory who she had never spoken to. 'Hi, I'm Katie.' She said holding out her hand.

Lily took it. 'I'm Lily, nice to meet you.'

Katie nodded. 'I saw you talking to Snape…' She started.

'Yeah? So what?' Lily asked defensively.

'Well, you _do_ know that he knows more dark spells most of the sixth and seventh years put together don't you?'

'I've heard that rumor.' Lily said irritated. 'Why?'

Katie raised her eyebrows. 'Oh, I dunno, but don't you think that's a little…_strange?_' 

Lily said nothing and turned back to her toast. 

The girl didn't give up though. 'I even heard that his family were You-know-who supporters. If I were you, I'd stay as far away from him as possible.'

'Yeah well your not me, you don't know that his family are supporters of You-know-who, and you _don't_ know Severus.' 

'Well, neither do you.' 

Lily smirked at Katie and got up. 'Yes I do.'

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N: Ok, Please don't flame me for what I'm doing in this fic, I've got it all worked out. Please review, I'll try to get the next part up soon, but I'm going to the carols on the hill tonight and I have a night, so please be patiant. Thank-you to all the people who reviewed last time, you made me J. 


	6. Waterlily's 6

A/N: Ok, um thanks for reviewing my last one, and well please review this one too, thanks. Just to clear something up, in this fic Lily is helping Snape to spite James. She doesn't really _like _him… Oh, and I've come to the concusion that neither Lily or James are morning people (don't ask why they get up so early then…)

************************************************

Lily grabbed her astronomy books and headed out of the dormitory. As she was crossing the common room, she was intercepted by Jasmine.

'Lily, you know you _really_ don't have to do this you know.' She said seriously.

Lily sighed and stared at her.

'James says he's really sorry for being such a bastard.' Sirius piped in, leaving James and coming over.

'I did _not_ say that Sirius!' James called annoyed. 'Let her go if she want's, it's her life. She can waste it on Snape if she chooses.'

'Well someone's certainly changed their attitude.' Jasmine called back to him annoyed.

Lily however, smiled. 'Listen, all it is is astronomy. Nothing more.' She pushed her way past Jasmine and out the portrait door.

Once out she checked her watch, 10:10.

She was late. She quickly made her way up the many corridors and staircase until she got to the top of the astronomy tower.

She leaned against the closed door for a second while she got her breath back, then slowly she pushed the door open and walked inside.

Snape was waiting with his back to the door looking up to the open sky.

Lily cleared her throat and he turned around. 'Hi Severus.' She said smiling slightly.

'Uh...hi Lily.' He said nervously.

'Shall we get started?' She asked him.

'What? Oh yeah, probably.'

She nodded, slightly unhinged by his nervousness.

She began pointing out all the constellations to him, she didn't notice the door slip open and three pairs of invisible eyes staring at her.

***

The next morning James awoke at 6:07. 

He dressed and crept out of the dormitory and down the stairs to the common room. As usual, he spotted Lily sitting in her usual chair, deeply involved with her book.

This time, he didn't bother with her. Instead he ignored her and walked out of the portrait door.

Lily didn't look up from her book. She knew he was angry, but she just didn't give a damn. He was acting like he and Lily were going out. She had never liked him, -not even as a friend really, so he could be a prick as much as he wanted. She didn't care. She didn't like people like James. _People who had egos the size of 10 quiditch pitches put together. Thinking they can walk around and watch everyone bow to their every wishes…_Lily blinked and shook herself mentally. _Where did that come from?_ She asked herself. She shrugged and returned to her book.

***

By thursday, the feud between James and Lily had still not let up. 

It was the afternoon, and the Gryffindors were sitting in Professor Heinze's class for Defense against Dark Arts.

He was giving them a demonstration of the spell to kill a Yeady. (A medium sized, winged creature that encircled their prey at rapid speed in order to daze them, before claiming their life and doubling in size.)

Lily watched in fascination as Heinzes told them to observe carefully as he said clearly "Yead, killeus totalandus," (A:N I know that's a really lame spell, but I don't speak Latin) then a moment later, a jet black substance escaped his wand and hit the stuffed toy Yeady square in the chest, causing it to burst into flames.

Heinze quickly extinguished these with a spurt of water from his wand.

Then he turned to the class. 'Any questions?' He asked them.

No one said anything.

'Alright then,' He started. 'Please read pages 45-53 in your books and answer the questions on page 54.'

There was a ruffle of pages as the students opened their books and began their set work.

'It's a shame we can't do anything useful in here,' James said to Sirius regretfully behind her. 'I mean, it'd be much more beneficial if we studied evil creatures a little closer to home, like Snape for example.'

Sirius snorted his agreement.

Lily sighed, took out her wand, and subtly pointed it at James. She quietly muttered a few words under her breath, and James hair turned a beautiful shade of pink.

Jasmine noticed Lily do this, and let out a stifled laugh.

'Lily…' She started.

'Yes?' Lily answered innocently. 'It'll wear off at 12 tonight.' She told her friend defensively.

Jasmine sighed and returned to her work.

***

On Saturday, Jasmine dragged Lily to see the quiditch match that was playing. Ravenclaw versus Slytherin.

They chose seats near the top and waited for Madame Reetch to start the match.

They were joined a minute later by James, Sirius, Remus and (regrettably) Peter.

'Mornin' Ladies.' Sirius said brightly.

They nodded their greetings, as they were watching the teams walk out onto the pitch.

'So…Who you guys supporting?' Remus asked hesitantly.

'Ravenclaw.' Jasmine said quickly.

Lily could feel the others watching her. 'I'm just watching.' She told them.

'She's going for Slytherin then.' She heard James mutter to Sirius, who nodded.

'No James, I am _not_ going for Slytherin.' She said to him annoyed.

He was about to remark, but Sirius cut in. 'The games starting.' He told them excited.

They all turned to face the pitch, with Lily and James occasionally shooting deadly glances at each other.

They heard Madame Reetch's call out, and the players started to rise into the air.

'**And off they go!**' Shouted Chris Lee, a Ravenclaw fifth year who commentated the quiditch matches. 'The quaffle immediately taken by Joshua Dan of Slytherin, he's heading towards the goals steadily- _but wait!_ Where did that come from? A bludger hit by Geff Trent from Ravenclaw.

Dan drops the quaffle, and is caught by Ravenclaw's Freddie Yang. 

He's flying very steadily, about to shoot –but wait, no, he's passed it to Ted Moran, a fellow Ravenclaw chaser, who shoots and gets it passed the keeper and he **_scores!_ Well done Teddy! Whoo-hoo!**'

Three quarters of the stands had gone ecstatic over this. The boys (excluding Peter) had jumped up and started screaming. Jasmine was cheering loudly, and Lily was clapping.

Then the quaffle was in play again. 

'Slytherin in possession, Dan passes to Malfoy. Malfoy flying fast, dodges a bludger and loops around Trent. -He's just showing off.' Lee said annoyed. 'Malfoy shoots, keeper Jimmy Walker tries to block, but misses, Slytherin score.'

A small portion of the crowd erupted into a fit of cheering and clapping.

The Ravenclaw chasers took the quaffle and started to fly towards their goals.

'Moran in possession,' Chris shouted into the microphone. 'Passes to Yang _–what was that?_' Chris asked, 'Was that the snitch? The Slytherin seeker Douglass Avery dives after it, he's followed closely by Thomas Tung, the Ravenclaw seeker.'

'Hey Jasmine, is that your brother?' Sirius asked with innocent curiousity.

Jasmine froze in her seat. She bit her lip, and very softly said 'yes.'

Remus looked away from the race in the air. 'Then why are you in Gryffindor?' He asked.

'Because.' Jasmine told him shortly.

Lily noticed Jasmine looked very stressed. 'Are you ok?' She asked in an under-tone so that the guys wouldn't hear.

Jasmine nodded weakly. 'Fine.' She said.

Lily shrugged and turned back to the match.

Thomas was gaining on Douglass. Soon they were neck-to-neck, both flying amazingly fast.

Suddenly a dragon appeared in the air in front of them. 

It gave a mighty roar, and spat out a blast of fire.

Thomas reared his broom to avoid the jet of hot flames. 

The dragon let out another spout of fire, and Thomas, losing control of his broom, slipped from the air.

Quite a few people screamed as they watched him fall, one of the teachers slowed him down with their wand.

The dragon then disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, leaving Douglass crying out the fact that he caught the snitch.

Tom reached the ground unconscious, and the students in the lower parts of the stands rushed over to his aid.

Madame Helga pushed her way through the crowd and ordered everyone to get back. 

She summoned a magic stretcher and floated him away to the infirmary. 

'Shit.' Sirius commented. 'What the hell just happened?'

James shrugged. 'Dunno, where did that dragon come from?'

'Jasmine?' Lily asked. 

Jasmine looked as though she was in shock. 'What? Um, I have to go talk to someone, I'll meet you guys in the common room later.'

'..Ok.' Lily said, slightly confused.

Jasmine got up and hurried back into the castle.

She looked around and heard the distant sounds of cheers coming from the derection of the dungeons. 

She ran after them.

She rounded a corner and saw almost the entire Slytherin house carrying her brother to the common.

'_Douglass!'_ She called out nervously.

The cheers stopped and Doug turned his face towards her.

His upper lip twitched into a sneer and he looked at her with disgust.

'What'oo you want?' He asked her maliciously.

Jasmine's knees felt like they'd turned to jelly. _Damn, why did she have to come here?_ She asked herself angrily. 'I…um… have to talk to you.' She said nervously.

He gave her a searching look, full of hatred, then motioned for the four Slytherins holding him to let him down.

He walked over to her and led her forcefully by the arm into a large, deserted chamber.

'What was worth embarrassing me in front of all my friends, _Gryffindor?'_ he hissed at her.

Jasmine hesitated, put off by the use of her house as an insult. 'That dragon….you summoned it.' She told him nervously.

He straightened himself up. 'So what if I did?' He asked dangerously.

Jasmine swallowed. 'Thomas…he's now in the hospital wing…_unconscious_…doesn't that mean anything to you?' 

'Yeah, it means _don't_ get on my bad side.' He told her menacingly.

Jasmine took a step back from him. 'You…you can't go on hurting people like this.' She stammered. 'It…isn't right.'

He sighed in a bored sort of way. 'You _Gryffindors_ and your views of right and wrong, you people think you know everything, your worse than the Ravenclaws.' He took a deep breath. 'Might I warn you to keep out of business that doesn't concern you.' He took a step towards her. 'You might be my sister, but that doesn't mean I won't hurt you if I get the chance.'

Jasmine's eyes darted around desperately. 

Suddenly, she could hear footsteps outside coming towards them. 

She was about to cry out, but her brother quickly drew his wand and performed a spell, and everything went black.

******************************************************

# Ha! I _finally _finished it!!! I'm so happy, it's taken me ages to write this, I've suffered all sorts of writers block. Anyway, I hope you liked it, please review, no flames please.

# ~Madaline. 


	7. Waterlily's 7

Hi again, thanks for those of you who did review my last fic, anyway, disclaimer; I own nothing that you recognize. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfics would I?

******Waterlily's Part 7******

'So where did Jasmine go again?' Sirius asked Lily for the tenth time in the last five minutes.

Lily sighed. 'I have told you a million times already, she said she had to go and talk to someone.'

'Well why didn't you go with her?' James asked Lily angrily.

'Because she rushed off before I could do or say anything, Dickhead.' Lily told him hotly. 'What's it to you anyway? I thought Sirius was the one desperately in love with her!'

'Hey! I am not _"desperately in love with her!"_' Sirius told them indignantly. 

'…Whatever.' James muttered, causing Sirius to whack him over the head.

'What's going on? I thought you two had agreed to disagree with each other forever more.' Sirius said in a confused voice.

'I _–technically- _didn't agree with James, he agreed with me.' Lily told them.

James scowled at both of them.

'Ah_-ha_! Checkmate!' Remus' voice interrupted them. 'I beat you, you little rat!' He got up and did a little victory dance around the common room, Peter was left sulking at the chessboard, listening to the insults the chess players were throwing at him.

Remus danced over to where they were they were sitting and sat down. 'What're we talking about?' He asked, his usual shy and quiet attitude dissolved by his win over Peter. 

'Jasmine.' They answered.

'Ah yes, where is the love of Sirius' life anyway?' Remus asked.

Sirius' scowl deepened, and he chucked a pillow at Remus.

'Hey! Was it something I said?' Remus asked annoyed.

Lily rolled her eyes as Remus threw a cushion back at him.

'Poor Princess Lily, too sophisticated and posh to understand the humorous side of watching two friends fight.' James mocked.

'Screw-you Potter.' She said venomously.

'Really? I'm not so sure Snape would approve of you doing that.' He said with amusement.

'Grow up!'

'Make me!'

'I've got better things to do with my time!'

'What? Snogging Snape?'

'Is that what you do when you can't think of a decent come back? Make stupid remarks about Snape?'

'No, normal I punch them in the nose, but then _you'd_ probably burst into tears!'

'In the nose you say? Like this?' She drew back her arm and punched him.

__

'Ow!' James cried out. 'What'd you do that for?' He asked angrily, his nose dripping blood.

'Gee, you really _must_ be dumber than you look, quite an achievement, I applaud you.' She said sarcastically.

Sirius who had stopped beating Remus with his pillow, and tried with all his might to contain his laughter, finally cracked, letting out a huge "HA!" 'A girl beat up you James! Not just any girl…Lily!' He fell backwoods onto the couch and burst into hysterical gales of laughter.

James had his nose in the air, and was lightly feeling the damage. 'Damn it Lily, I think you broke my nose!' He told her angrily. He poked Sirius. 'When you're done…' He prompted annoyed.

Sirius looked up, still laughing. 'Yikes, who would've known she had such a punch in her.' He commented. 'Come on James, you'd better see Madame Helga.'

He led James threw the crowd of Gryffindors who quickly pretended that they hadn't been watching.

After they exited the common room, nearly everyone broke into amused gales of chatter.

'Lily, why exactly _did_ you punch James?' Remus asked curiously.

'He was getting on my nerves.' Lily said grinning, although inside she felt a small pang of guilt.

* * *

Jasmine awoke with a splitting headache. She opened her eyes, but could see only blurred white.

'Ugh.' She groaned, rubbing her eyes.

She heard fast, delicate footsteps approach her, and suddenly the white curtain was pulled to the side and she saw the plump school-nurse standing before her.

'Ah, so your awake at last.' She said. 

Jasmine looked around her and saw that she was in the infirmary, in the bed next to her the boy from the Quiditch match, she couldn't remember his name. 'What happened?' She asked groggily.

'…You mean you don't remember?' Madame Helga asked uncertainly.

Jasmine shook her head, and then regretted it for it caused a sharp pain in her temple.

Madame Helga sighed. 'A young Slytherin boy found you at the foot of the stairs coming from the Ravenclaw territory. He says he was looking for Professor Flitwick at the time…'

Jasmine looked confused. 'Who was the boy?' She asked.

Madame Helga thought for a moment. 'I think the lads name was Snake…no Snape, or something like that.'

Jasmine's eyes widened with surprise, but she quickly calmed herself when Madame Helga gave her a look.

Jasmine quickly changed the subject. 'When'll I be getting out of here?' She asked.

'Tomorrow morning.' Madame Helga promised. 'That is if you get enough rest…' She added meaningfully. 

* * * 

James and Sirius walked towards the hospital wing.

'I guess I can count on you to tell Madame Helga that Lily broke my nose, Sirius?' He asked glumly.

'What're friends for?' He answered brightly.

'Great.' James said with dismay.

Sirius grinned and pushed the door open for them.

Madame Helga, who was making up the spare beds, took one look at James, and rushed over in an instant.

'Oh my, James, what happened?' She asked concerned.

'A girl punched him.' Sirius told her promptly.

James scowled. 

Madame Helga just sighed and told him to sit down, and stare at the roof.

She took out her wand and said 'Repairo.' ((I think that one _is_ an actual spell, but I can't remember.))

All of a sudden, James nose felt much better.

'Thanks a lot.' He said. 'How's Thomas?' He asked looking around the beds. He spotted Jasmine sleeping in one in the far corner. 'Jasmine!' He called out.

'_James!'_ Madame Helga said annoyed. 'She needs her rest.'

James nodded vaguely, and both he Sirius made their way over to her bed.

'Five minutes!' Madame Helga called to them.

Jasmine opened her eyes to see a goofy face grinning over her.

She instinctively lifted up her arm and swatted it.

'Ow!' She heard Sirius' voice cry out.

'Oh, sorry Sirius.' She said. She raised her head a little off the pillow and saw that James was sitting next to her bed examining his nose in a mirror. 'What are you two doing here?' She asked them.

Sirius' face split into an evil grin. 'Lily broke James' nose.' He told her. 

She looked from James to Sirius, then back to James again and burst out laughing. 

James scowled at her. ((He's doing a lot of scowling today…))

'Oh my God, why?' She asked when she had calmed down.

'I told that I wouldn't go out with her.' He lied.

'Sure…' Jasmine said sarcastically.

'Anyway, why're you here?' Sirius asked seriously.

'I don't know, I can't really remember. Madame Helga said Snape brought me here claiming that I'd fallen down the Ravenclaw steps.' 

'I knew it!' James said triumphantly. 'He tried to murder you! I always had my suspicions about him…' He added mysteriously.

Jasmine laughed. 'If he tried to murder me, why'd he bring me here?' She asked. 'Oh God! Did I just defend Snape?' She cried in disgust.

Sirius put a hand up to her forehead in pretence to check if she was feverish.

'Ok, times up boys, she'll be out tomorrow, you can see her then.' Madame Helga said striding over to them.

They nodded, and waved goodnight to Jasmine, as they were ushered out of the white washed room.

* * *(A couple of weeks later)

'Miss Avery, could I please see you for a moment after class?' Professor McGonagall's strict voice rose above the ringing bell.

Jasmine looked from her friends to Professor McGonagall confused. 'Yeah, sure.' She answered.

She watched everyone else rush out eagerly to escape the stuffiness of the classroom.

The Professor shuffled the papers in front of her into a neat pile before finally looking at Jasmine. 

'How are things with you, Jasmine?' She asked seriously.

Jasmine looked blankly at her for a second. 'Uh, fine I guess.' She said uncertainly.

'Uh huh, there isn't anything troubling you lately? Anything that seems slightly not right?' She pushed.

'Not right?' Jasmine repeated blankly. 'No, not that I can think of. Why?'

McGonagall sighed. 'Well, your school work isn't going all that good.' She told her. 'Like this paper you handed in on Tuesday-'

'I wasn't feeling that well when I wrote that.' She said in defensively.

'It's not just this paper Jasmine.' McGonagall told her, shaking her head slightly. 'Almost all your work recently has been barely acceptable. It's not just in Transfiguration either. Professor Strapp, Professor Flitwick, Professor Lunar... They've all said roughly the same thing.'

Jasmine looked at her teacher. 'So...what are you saying?' She asked hesitantly.

'Well in a couple of weeks the end of year exams are coming up. And as I presume you already know, you need to pass these exams to get into your second year.' She said kindly. 'I'm just suggesting that you spend your time before the exams wisely. Try to cram in as much studying as possible.'

'But I _do_ study!' Jasmine told her outraged.

'Yes well, I'm sure you do, but a little more might be the way to go.'

* * *

'Oh Jasmine, what's the matter?' Lily asked her friend who was sitting on one of the couches in their common room, crying.

'Pro-Professor McGonagall, said I was gonna fail unless I spent all of my time studying.' She choked out.

'Oh Jasmine…' Lily said sympathetically, rushing over and putting her arm around Jasmines shoulder. 'Your not going to fail, your too bright for that. What does that old bat know anyway?' 

Jasmine shook her head at Lily. 'It's not just McGonagall, the other teachers think so too.' 

Lily looked sympathetic.

Just then the portrait door swung open and revealed James, Sirius and Remus laughing merrily about something.

Jasmine quickly looked away and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe.

'Please don't tell them.' She muttered to Lily, who nodded blankly.

They saw Sirius spot them, poke the others, and walk over.

'Hey guys, what's up?' Remus asked them brightly. 

'Jasmine, what's wrong?' Sirius asked when he saw her red eyes.

Lily looked at her anxiously.

'My rabbit died.' She lied in a sad voice.

'Oh, I'm sorry Jasmine.' James said sincerely.

'Yeah, I know how you feel.' Sirius said sympathetically. 'I used to have a rabbit, it used to turn the cat purple.' He said with a small smile on his lips. 'Then it died when I was nine.' Sirius looked at the floor, his eyes misting up.

Lily exchanged a look with Jasmine.

'...There, there Sirius.' Said Remus, awkwardly patting him on the back.

Sirius sniffed. 'I'm fine.' He told the group.

* * * 

Lily looked over at Jasmine in Transfiguration, she was intently writing down notes and trying to concentrate hard. Past her, James was grinning evilly at Lily. She rolled her eyes and looked back to her book. It said, in big black ink words 'HELLO, COW'. She gaped at her book, and turned the page. Thankfully, it wasn't written on any other pages.

She turned back to him, and he was giggling proudly. Sirius looked as if he asked why he was laughing, and James whispered something in his ear. Then Sirius chuckled too, but shot Lily a sympathetic look also.

'Bastards.' She cursed, underneath her breath. James seemed to understand what she said, and poked his tongue out at her.

She commenced reading the book, trying very hard not to look over at James pulling faces at her.

Finally she cracked. 

When Professor McGonagall's back was turned, she pulled out her wand and muttered a spell at him. A small flash of light erupted from her wand, and James ended up with his skin a brilliant shade of orange.

James looked down at his hand in shock. He turned angrily towards Lily and also picked up his wand and pointed it at her.

Lily saw him say something that she didn't quite catch.

A minute later, her hair was white and stringy, like cobwebs.

'Arrgh!' She cried out. 'James I'll _kill you!'_ She yelled at him.

'You started it, Cobweb' He called back to her immaturely.

'I did _not! _You did!'

'Lily! James!' Professor McGonagall's angry voice silenced them. '_What _is the meaning of this?' She asked in a deadly voice. 'I turn my back on you two for one minute…50 points from Gryffindor, and you will both have detentions on Friday.' The rest of their class groaned at them in unison.

'What?' Lily asked shocked. She scowled angrily at James, and was enraged even more to find that he was grinning at her.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat again. 'You two are to go to Madame Helga to get yourselves cleaned up.' She told them strictly.

Lily saw Jasmine look at her sympathetically, and smiled back. Then she gathered up her books and walked out of the classroom, not waiting for James.

A moment later, she heard the classroom door creak open and James emerge behind her.

They walked in silence for a little while.

'I hate you James.' Lily suddenly blurted out at him.

'Really?' He asked her.

She glared at him. 'You are, by definition, the most annoying person on this planet.' She informed him.

He grinned wickedly at her. 'You don't mean that, you know you love me.' 

'Potter, did you hit your head recently? Or are you always this dumb?'

'Gee, I'm _so_ offended, Spider.' 

'_What!_ What do you mean, _Spider?'_ She asked him.

He grabbed her bag and pulled out her hand mirror from it.

Lily grabbed it from him, and held it up so he could see the top of her head. 

Lily screamed. 

Sitting delicately in the tangled mass of white that was her hair sat a big, black, hairy spider.

'Get it off, get it off, get it _off!' _She shrieked at him, whilst jumping up and down on the spot and shaking her head about frantically. ((Don't you _dare_ say that's pathetic, I did that in the middle of Food Tech once, very embarrassing…))

James looked at her and started laughing.

'Potter! Get it off me _now!' _She yelled at him.

He sighed. 'Leviosa.' He said sadly pointing his wand at the eight-legged demon.

She took a breath of relief, then suddenly swung her book bag at him, hitting him square in the cheek.

'_Ow!'_ He cried out. 'It was only a little spider!' He told her crossly, waggling it at her with his wand.

'Get that away from me, you _self_-loving, _purely _insane, totally _unworthy _of any of the stuck up privileges that comes with being the son of the worst Minister of Magic ever!' She took a deep breath and stared defiantly at him.

James said nothing for a minute. He was taken shocked. _No one,_ had ever spoken to him like that, and really meant it.

Finally, he realized that he was letting her win the argument. 'I'm impressed, there ain't a lot of _Mudbloods _who know who the Minister of Magic is.' He said angrily, inwardly shocked at what he had just said.

Lily gaped at him in fury for a second. Her eyes narrowed. 'Laugh it up Potter, at least my father loves me.' She said coolly, knowing she didn't have a shred of evidence to base that on. She calmly turned on her heal and continued to walk towards the hospital wing.

James felt like the bottom of his stomach had just dropped off. He stared after her thinking about what she had said.

__

She just said that to make me feel bad. He thought to himself. _She doesn't even know my father. Of course he loves me. _'Or does he?' A little voice in the side of his head asked.

James turned and walked back down the corridor in which they came. He got to a portrait of a sullen looking wizard thinking hard.

'Lateral quizzes.' He said flatly, and the painting swung open, allowing him to climb down into the room below, and collapse pathetically into a rather tattered looking couch.

***************************************

A/N: Aww, poor James huh? Oh well…

Sorry that took so long, but now it's up.

My friend who is very good at French and drawing wrote one part in this, and had an idea for another part. Her

name is *-Artemis-*. Go read her stories now. (she wrote that by the way.)

Yeah, Artemis helped with the start of the transfiguration lesson.

Newayz, please review now.


	8. Waterlily's 8

Lily sat alone in her dormitory staring out the window.

A/N: Hiya's all! I'm so excited, it's finished! Yea! Anyway, since it's highly probable that you haven't read this yet, I'll just mention a few things.

1.This was not written in order. I had THE WORST case of writers block. It lasted for months and months –hence the delay. So anyway, every once in a while I'd write a part or so, delete it, re-write it, then delete it again then write a totally different part. So, I ended up with at least five versions of this fic that I have just put together and edited, so when you find that it doesn't make sense, don't blame me, I did my best. 

2.I stepped on a nail on Friday the 13th, how freaky is that?

3.I have nothing more to say here, except the obvious….PLEASE REVIEW at the end, it'll only take a minute but will deliver me a smile. :o)

'Jasmine it's before breakfast.' Sirius commented in confused awe. 'Is it my imagination, or are you studying at a time when you would normally be fast asleep?'

Jasmine looked up at him and smiled briefly. 'I forgot to do my Goblin essay for Binns.' She told him returning to the lined parchment in front of her.

Sirius blinked his eyes to get the remaining sleep out. 'Isn't that due next week?' He asked uncertainly. 'Unless I slept longer than I thought I did...'

'Yeah, well I thought I'd get a head start.' She said in an off voice.

'But Binns couldn't give a damn if we hand in an essay late, he hardly notices.'

Jasmine shrugged. 'All the same.'

Sirius shook his head and opened his mouth to reply when James came down into the common room. 

'Morning all.' He said cheerfully when he saw them. 'How are you this gloriously delightful morning?'

Jasmine and Sirius exchanged worried glances.

'James, have you taken any form of medication since dinner last night?' Sirius asked slowly.

'Nope.' James replied, lifting his arms and spinning on the spot. 'I guess I'm just on a "natural high".'

Jasmine raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

'ARRRRRGH!' A very angry cry echoed through out Gryffindor Tower. 'JAMES POTTER!- I AM GOING TO **KILL YOU!'**

James jumped and started to run to the portrait door. 'I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm a little bit busy this morning.' He called over his shoulder as he made his way out of the common room.

Two seconds later Lily emerged from the girls staircase and rushed after him.

Even in her rush, Sirius and Jasmine could clearly see a large, green wart on her temple.

'Come on, I don't want to miss this!' Sirius said excitedly as he ushered Jasmine away from her work.

Lily ran around the bundles of students slowly making their way down to the great hall for breakfast, totally oblivious of the fact she was still in her dressing gown.

She saw James' chaotic-haired head glance over his shoulder at her, then rush down the staircase down into the entrance hall. 

Without looking where she was going, she started to run down after him, but someone stepped in front of her and she ran straight into them, causing them both to fall the rest of the way down.

Lily groaned and rubbed her ankle.

She looked at the boy who she appeared to be sitting on.

Snape.

'Morning.' He said in an in-dignified voice. 

'Oh, hi Severus.' Lily said hurriedly, looking around the entrance hall where a small crowd had gathered.

Lily moved off Snape sheepishly, blushing slightly.

He got up and offered her his hand, which she took gratefully. 

'Ew Lily, what's that on your face?' He asked her frowning.

'Potter.' Lily muttered angrily, pulling herself up and cringing as she put a bit of weight onto her sore ankle.

'Shit.' She muttered under her breath, clutching onto Snapes shoulder for support.

'Lily!' She heard Sirius call out to her from the top of the stairs. 

He rushed down with Jasmine following closely behind. 'What happened?' HE asked, eyeing Snape suspiciously.

'I fell down the stairs and hurt my ankle.' She told them annoyed, looking over her shoulder in hope of seeing where James got to. 

As it happened, he was standing on the other side of the hall waggling his tongue from side to side at her.

'Lily, forget James for a minute.' Jasmine told her sternly. 'Is your ankle alright?'

Lily nodded and let go of Snape to prove it. 

'See, I can walk on it...' She told them, moving her foot slightly and cringing when the pain hit her. 

She staggered and was about to collapse when she flung her arms around Sirius. 'Or maybe not.' She said in a disappointed voice.

Jasmine sighed. 'I'll take her to Madame Helga.' She said, ignoring Snape.

Sirius gently helped Lily grab onto Jasmine and with a quick goodbye

to Snape hobbled away slowly.

'So,' Sirius started, turning to Snape. 'Your I-will-not-push-people-down-stairs support group kicked you out for being an arsehole?' Sirius asked sarcastically, before walking off to find James, leaving Snape staring angrily after him.

* * * * * * * *

Lily's ankle had heeled in an instant under the influence of Madame Helga's wand, but Lily was still planning revenge against James.

However, with the increasing pressure for the exams put on them by the teachers, there was little time for acting out her carefully planned plans.

One dreary afternoon, Lily sat alone in her dormitory staring out the window.

Someone knocked on the door outside, and Lily looked up.

'Come in.' She called.

The door opened and Remus edged his way into the room.

He looked around at the unmade beds and piles of clothes lying around on the floor and blushed.

'What?' Asked Lily, puzzled.

'I just didn't think that, well never mind.' He said quickly.

'No, tell me.' Lily prompted.

'Well, I just expected that girls dormitories would be neat.' He stammered.

Lily glared at him and raised an eyebrow. 'You do realise that that was so utterly sexist and stupid, that I ought to throw you out right now?'

'I didn't mean it in that way or anything, it's just well, not what I expected. That's all.' Remus said hurriedly. 

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, whatever.' She said to him. 'So did you come up here for a reason or...'

'Oh yeah,' Remus said enthusiastically. 'Sirius sent me up here to tell you too come down to the common room.'

Lily scowled. 'Potter down there still?'

'Nah, he left with Peter a little while ago.'

'So why didn't Sirius come up himself?' 

'He's trying to get Jasmine to stop studying for a while.'

'Good luck to him.' Lily muttered under her breath.

'So, you coming?' Remus asked again.

Lily let out a big breath of air. 'Yeah, I 'spose so.' She said hopping up from her window ledge and following Remus out the dorm and down the stairs to the not-so-crowded common room.

'Lily!' Called Sirius. 'You came down.'

'Yeah, I noticed that too, Sirius.' Lily said sarcastically nodding her head and walking over to where Sirius and Jasmine were standing.

'Excellent.' Sirius grinned, rubbing his hands together.

He stepped to the side to reveal a very bored looking James.

'You said he wasn't down here.' Lily said to Remus annoyed.

Remus shrugged lightly and looked at Sirius imploringly.

'Ok, now you and Jamsie-boy here are probably wondering what your both doing here, in the same common room, together.' Sirius said in a professional voice.

James looked at Remus. 'Why did you bring _her down here?' He asked motioning to Lily._

Remus opened his mouth butt Sirius cut in.

'I think I can answer that Remus old-boy.' He turned to face James. 

'You see Jamsie-boy, we, Jasmine Remus and myself, have been watching your little _escapade with Lily over the past year, and well, as entertaining as it has been, it's getting boring.' He said flatly. _

Lily rolled her eyes. '_This is boring.' She told the group. 'I don't have to stand here and listen to your bad attempts of Opra. I could be upstairs finishing my charms homework.' She said huffily._

'Lily!' Jasmine cried exasperatedly. 'We all know you hate James, you've been going on about it for the last three terms, but do you even know why you hate him?'

'I have very good judgement of character?' Lily offered unhelpfully.

'_I remember.' James started. 'It's because I read her stupid love letter from Snape.'_

'**It was not!' Lily shouted at him. '****It's because your an arse and a poof and jerk and a stuck up bastard! And it was _not a love letter!'_**

'**I'm stuck up? Well let me tell you something Miss Queen of the stuck-up air-heads, I don't give a ruddy rats-arse wether they were love-letters or not, all I know is that your a traitor to your house and all that your house stands for! I don't know anyone else who has ever been stupid enough to think that having a friendship with a Slytherin is cool. Let alone, the particular Slytherin that you chose, but then again, maybe you and Snape are right for each other. Your both cowards, your both low-lives and your both traitors!'**

And having said that James marched away and out the common room door, leaving Lily to shout '**Well, fuck you, Potter!' into the closed portrait before glaring at the others, who were standing in a little bunch with shocked expressions on their faces, and stalking back up to her dormitory and slamming the door behind her.**

* * * * * * * * *

Remus sat in the crowded common room the night before the exams started. His head was 

bent low over a table full of complicated notes and very thick books.

Jasmine was sitting next to him, quietly muttering over and over the twelve uses of dragon blood in order to memorise them.

Lily and James were on separate tables, on opposite sides of the room. Both heavily concentrating on their books and occasionally jotting down notes.

All of their class had been given _the_ _Lecture of the Exams (as the older students often referred to it) by McGonagall on Friday afternoon when they had had their transfiguration lesson. It consisted more or less of her telling them different versions of how hard their exams would be, but how each and every one of them would be able to achieve the best score they could if they studied, over and over again._

The rest of the Gryffindor had undoubtedly been given the same advice, as the usual noises of constant chatter were replaced by the sounds of students trying very hard to study. 

One by one, the students drifted off to bed. By 12:30, the only four students left in the common room were Lily, Jasmine, Remus, and Peter.

Lily and Peter had moved to Jasmine and Remus' table near the fire, and Lily was currently quizzing Jasmine. 

'What is the key element in successful charm work?' She asked looking at her notes.

Jasmine sighed. 'A wand?' She asked sleepily.

Lily peered over the top of her page at Jasmine and raised her eyebrows. 'No...but close. Concentration. Professor Flitwick repeats it every single lesson.'

'Twice every single lesson.' Remus muttered quietly not looking up from his book.

Lily nodded at him, then turned back to Jasmine.

'Ok, in Potions, what do you need to do to get a-'

'Add a handful of Dragon blood powder and a cup of pixie wings and hope for the best?' Jasmine prompted sarcastically.

'What, and blow the room away while your at it?' Lily said annoyed. 'You've got to know these things for your test, you know!'

* * * * * * * *

The next day was hell.

The little tiff with Jasmine had been forgotten.

Everyone gradually drifted down to the great hall for breakfast. Lily was among the last, and she had dark circles under her eyes.

She slumped down in a chair next to Peter, who was hurriedly turning pages in his transfiguration book, sweat beading on his chubby brow. 

'You know Peter, you have to do more than just turn the pages and look at the pretty pictures.'

A tired voice from behind them said.

The body belonging to the voice sat down in the spare seat next to Lily.

'Morning Remus.' Lily yawned, pouring milk onto her bowl of cocoa-pops. 

'Morning.' Remus replied.

'Lily, how do you change a pencil into a stick again?' Peter asked urgently.

'I don't know Peter, try looking on the first page of chapter one.' Lily said sarcastically.

The bell for their first class rang out through the hall and Lily hurriedly got up and started to make her way out of the great hall with Remus and Peter just behind her.

'Hey Lily!' A voice cried out once they reached the entrance hall.

She turned around and saw Snape jogging up to her.

'Hi Snape.' She said when he reached her. 'What have you got first?' She asked while Remus and Peter stood scowling at him next to her.

'Herbology.' He replied. 'You?'

'Transfiguration.' She told him grimly. 'Not my best subject.' She added.

Remus cleared his throat pointedly at her and she rolled her eyes.

'Well, good luck then.' Snape said resignedly.

'With any luck, you'll fail and have to leave Hogwarts.' Said James coming up to stand next to Peter with Sirius by his side.

'Yeah, but then again, that wont take much luck, it's bound to happen anyway.' Sirius added.

'Oh grow up.' Lily told them exasperatedly. 'Come on, we'll be late.' She urged.

'See ya Severus.'She said waving her hand briefly at him.

'Yeah, see-ya.' He replied, before giving James and Sirius a last glare and walking off towards the castles doors following a crowd of Slytherins. 

'You are so immature.' Lily said scathingly. 'You can't control yourself can you? Every opportunity you get your mouthing off about Snape. When will you grow up and get a life?' She asked James exasperatedly.

James gave Lily a look. 'When will you learn that Slytherin are scum? There is a reason all the dumbest, rudest, most arrogant up-themselves pigs in Hogwarts are Slytherin you know.' He told her plainly.

'Well if that's so true then how come you're in Gryffindor?' She asked him coolly, her eyes narrowed. Then, without waiting for a reply, she turned and stalked up the many staircases leading to the transfiguration classroom on the fourth floor.

She entered the room puffing slightly.

'Your late, Miss Evans.' Professor McGonagall said in her stern voice looking at Lily reproachfully.

'It wasn't my fault Professor, Potter-'

'Managed to be on time.' McGonagall told her motioning to the little gang sitting at the back of the classroom acting good and sitting up straight.

Lily stared at them as she walked over to her seat and sat down next to Jasmine.

'Why weren't you at breakfast?' Lily muttered to her friend.

'Studying.' Jasmine replied obviously.

Lily nodded and turned her attention back to the professor.

'Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted, the main part of the test you will receive from me will be a practical test in which you will have an hour to turn a mouse into a snuff box. It is a standard test that I give to all the first years that I teach.You may come and collect your mice from me now.'

**********

That evening Lily and the other first years collapsed into various chairs around the common, all exhausted from their first day of testing.

'Man that was hard.' Came Sirius' tired voice.

There was a mumbled agreement from the others around him.

'I wish Professor Flitwick could have given us some warning about testing us on sneezing charms.' Peter moaned.

'He did, Peter, last week remember.' James told him. 'I even managed to get some revision done for them.' James said, his eyes glinting evilly at Lily.

'Funny Potter.' She muttered sarcastically. 'Shame though, even with _all_ your revision, your still going to get kicked out because Hogwarts have this policy, see, they don't let people who don't pass into the second year.'

'That may be so, but it don't bother me because we all know I kicked your arse in Transfiguration.' He shot back. 'Not even being able to stop your box from moving, how pathetic is that?' James sneered.

Lily smirked and directed a very large pile of cushions to fling themselves at him.

'I'm going to bed.' She announced, getting up from her chair and making her way up the stairs to the girl's dorm.

'I'm going to bed.' James said, getting up and imitating Lily's walk up the stairs.

'Night.' Remus called after them.

'He looked around, Peter and Jasmine were busy studying at a table on the wall, and Sirius was lying on the couch, his eyes half closed.

There were a few students from the upper years talking softly by the fire.

'Well Sirius, I guess it's just you and me.' Remus said cheerfully.

Sirius didn't reply.

'Sir-i-us…' Remus cooed softly, leaning over and prodding Sirius with his index finger.

Sirius rolled onto his side and gave out a low snore.

'Oh dear.' Remus muttered quietly, shaking his head slowly.

**********

The next couple of days were pretty much the same.

Students staying up late to cram in as much extra revision as possible, and moans and complaints in the common rooms after dinner. 

Finally, relief came.

The exams finished, the skies turned blue and students were gratefully packing their belongings into their trunks to take home for the summer.

'Has anyone seen my toothbrush?' A helpless Peter wailed. 'It's bright green.'

'Oh, that's right.' Sirius said in mock remembrance. 'I borrowed it when Strapp told me to clean out the bedpans in the hospital wing –without magic.'

Peters face turned a light shade of green and a revolted sound escaped his lips. 'B-but I used it last night…' He stuttered.

'Yeah, sorry Petey, I forgot to tell you.' Sirius continued.

'Don't listen to him Peter. He's only kidding.' James said in an effort to stop Peter rushing to the lavatory. 'He used Snapes brush for the detention, not yours. Yours probably just fell down the side.'

Peter nodded slightly and continued his search.

Remus, who had been remaining quiet up to now, suddenly looked up from his suitcase and sighed. 'You know, I'm going to miss this place over the summer.' He admitted.

'Yeah, me too.' James agreed looking out the window at the bright, sunny grounds. 'All the pranks, all the good food-'

'All the Lily…' Sirius finished for him while the others sniggered.

James looked away from the window and rested his gaze on Sirius. 'Excuse me?' He asked in a dignified voice.

'Come off it James, we all know the reason you keep annoying her is because you want her. It's obvious.' Sirius persisted.

'That is not true!' James protested. 'Ok, that may have been it at the very beginning of the year, but now I've seen her true colours, and they are not very pretty.'

Remus raised his eyebrows at him questioningly. 

'Well what do you want me to say?' James asked getting annoyed. 'I want her, I need her, I can't live without her?'

'Who can't you live without?' Came a little voice from just inside the door.

'Lily!' Said Sirius in his lively voice.

James glared at him, as if daring him to reopen the conversation, and then he turned back to Lily.

'What do you want?' He asked rudely.

'Tsk tsk, bit touchy are we?' Lily commented mildly. 'Someone didn't get enough sleep last night.'

James scowled at her and she continued. 

'I came to ask Remus if he had finished with my book yet, if that's okay with you.' She added sarcastically. 

'One moment Lily.' Remus told her as he rummaged through a large pile of junk lying on his bed. 

He found the book and handed it to her with the title facing up. _"Why werewolves are our friends." By Alfred Vince._

Lily smiled at him. 'Thanks.' 

She nodded at Sirius and Peter and walked out of the room, putting her middle finger up at James on the way out.

'Charming.' He muttered to the others.

***

Lily entered her dorm and was shocked to see the change that had taken place in the short time she had been away.

The room had been hit by something that could only be described as a bombshell, or worse, Sarah, Felicity and Rachel.

'I can't find my turquoise nail polish!' Sarah wailed hopelessly.

'Here it is.' Lily offered picking up a bottle of bluish nail polish. 

'No! That's sapphire!' 

'Oh, silly me.' Lily muttered to herself, rolling her eyes.

She carefully made her way to the other side of the dorm where Jasmine was sitting cross-legged on her bed watching the display with quite some amusement.

'I got my book back.' Lily said, plumping herself down next to her.

'Yeah, _that's_ the reason you went up there.' Jasmine said sarcastically.

'Why else would I freely go up to James dorm?' Lily asked.

'You right, _what was I thinking?_'

Lily looked at her puzzled, but said nothing.

Lily spotted Isis sniffing a pile of Sarah's clothes and rushed over to pick her up.

Pretty soon, with everyone packed and Sarah still moaning about her nail polish, the carriages pulled up outside the school doors.

As soon as each carriage was filled, it would start trotting away to the station where the now familiar red train was awaiting them.

The train ride seemed to take no time at all. No one spoke much, apart from James and Lily who were throwing the occasional insult at each other. 

When the train pulled into the station, it was beginning to get dark.

Everyone hurried out of the train and with a lot of hugs and promises to write over the summer holidays people disappeared through the platform barrier into the muggle world.

Lily briskly walked through the wall with her eyes closed and when she opened them her dad was standing in front of her smiling.

'Lily!' He roared, rushing over and giving her a big bear hug. Earning himself a lot of stares from the people around at the same time.

'Hi Dad.' Lily said happily. 

She looked around and her eyes fell on James who was looking at her and her dad with a sad, jealous expression on his face. When he saw her looking at him he turned away quickly and started walking away to the station entrance.

'Hi Mum.' He said to a tall thin lady leaning on a black car. James looked around. 'Where's Dad?' He asked her.

'He's at the office working.' She told him.

'Typical.' James muttered in an unsurprised voice.

**********

A/N: Thank-God! Wow, it has taken me so long to write that, and now, it's finished. Yay! 

I'm so proud. :o)

Anyway, I put a lot of work into this fic and it took me months to finish writing it, so please review. I'm begging you, just one meesly sentence.

Oh well, thanks for reading, I'll try and write the next one a little bit quicker.

Happy Easter,

~Ecila


	9. Waterlily's 9

A/N: Hia's peeps

* * * * * * * * * *

'Lil-y…'

The young red-head groaned and rolled over in her bed.

'_Lily!_' Came the voice of her sister, Petunia again.

'What?' Lily called out sleepily.

The door of her room opened and her bony sister walked in defiantly. 'I have to ask you a question.' She told her in a proud voice.

Lily groaned and covered her face with her hands. 'What is it?' She muttered out loud.

'I forgot what day it is. Can you tell me?' Petunia asked innocently.

Lily picked up her stuffed lamb, Fleecy, and chucked it at her sisters face. 'It's the first bloody day of the holidays and I was _trying_ to get some sleep.' She told her crossly.

'Oh, I _am sorry._' Petunia said in a long, fake apologetic voice. 'I'll leave you alone now, -after all, you need all the beauty sleep you can get.'

Petunia turned around and walked out of Lily's room, shutting the door with a click behind her.

Lily rubbed her eyes and looked at her alarm clock. It read 4:56AM. 

Lily swore at Petunia under her breath and tried, un-successively to get back to sleep.

After about ten minutes, she gave up and moved to her desk with her blanket wrapped tightly around her.

She pulled out a piece of parchment and began to write.

Dearest Potter,

Due to some annoying incident of sisterly love, I had to wake up at 5:00, and as I'm sure you know, I don't like waking up early.

So sorry honey, but I'm afraid that I hate suffering alone.

Cheers,

The beautiful and talented Lily Evans.

Lily smiled to herself and pointed her wand out the window.

'Wloay ostpay.' She muttered, a neat charm that Jasmine had taught her for summoning post owls.

She waited a minute for a little black owl to fly into her room via the window.

Lily smiled at it and put three nuts into the small leather pouch tied to it's leg before handing it the letter.

'Now, I want you to make a lot of noise when you deliver this.' Lily told the bird patiently.

The owl clicked it's beak and flew out through the window again.

Lily smiled happily and leaned back in her chair.

* * *

James rolled over in his bed and put his pillow over his head.

He thought he could hear an owl tapping on his window outside.

'Hoot, hoot.' 

James groaned and rolled off his bed with a thump.

He detangled himself from his blanket with difficulty and got up and made his way groggily to his window.

He fumbled with the latch before pulling it open and feeling the cold, fresh air on his skin.

Without hesitation, the owl flew inside and started doing laps around James' room, hooting merrily.

'Come here.' James called, getting annoyed at the little bird.

The owl gave a harsh hoot at James and dropped the letter on his head.

James started grumbling about stupid owls as he bent down and opened the letter.

His face broke into an un-willing grin as he read it. He shook his head and crumbled it into a little ball and chucked it into the waste paper basket.

His head turned to the owl and he pulled out his wand.

'Aintpay orangay' he muttered, and watched as one by one the owls feathers turned to bright fluoro orange.

The owl gave an undignified hoot and flew out of the window disgruntled, but not before giving James a cuff over the head with it's wing.

James smiled to himself and lay back down on his bed.

* * * * * * * * * *

Three hours later James woke up again to find bright sunlight pouring itself onto his closed eyelids.

He opened his eyes and blinked.

The first day of the holidays. The world was his, he thought. Thinking mischeiviously of the trouble he could cause. 

He dressed quickly and headed down the large marble staircase to the kitchen where his father was sitting at the table sipping on his coffee delicately, Daily Prophet in one hand.

He looked up as James came in.

'Morning Dad.' James said cheerfully.

'What was that racket in your room this morning?' Were his fathers words. The first words in six months, thought James.

'Oh nothing.' James told him. 'A girl from school…' 

His father chocked on his coffee. 'You had a girl from school in your room, making lots of noises, at five in the morning?' He chocked out, a flabbergasted expression on his lined face.

'No!' James said disgusted. 'It was only Lily, she sent me an owl.'

His father raised his eyebrows accusingly. 'How well do you know Lily exactly?' He asked sternly.

James looked at him shocked. 'What?! No, it's not like that, ew!' He said appalled. 

James shook his head and crossed the room to the sink where he poured himself a glass of water.

'You have mail.' His father said in a mild voice, motioning to a light brown envelope sitting on the table.

James took it and slit the top open.

The parchment inside read:

Dear Mr Potter.

I'm writing to you on a very serious matter.

I manage a very respectable company. Hardy and Co.'s Post Owl delivery service. This is a very handy service specifically designed for the use of muggleborns, or witches and wizards who don't have post owls of their own.

It's a very worthy establishment and I'm afraid that you have abused it by you de-colouring our newest post owl, Soot. 

A one-sickle fee has been taken from your Gringotts account.

Thank-you very much

L. J. Hardy.

James frowned, annoyed. 

'Damn.' He moaned under his breath.

'What was that?' His father asked, not looking up from his newspaper.

'Nothing.' James muttered.

_"Uh oh. You're late."_ Said an over cheerful voice coming from the round clock on the wall.

Mr Potter looked at his watch and swore. 'Shit, I am too.' He stood up brushing the left over crumbs from his toast off the front of his robes.

'Bye James. Tell your mother I'll be home for dinner.' He said to his son.

'Yep, sure.' James muttered flatly. 

He watched his father grab his briefcase and apparate out of the kitchen.

James sighed and put a few pieces of toast in the toaster. 

It popped down, then a moment later popped back up with the toast nicely toasted on both sides.

He buttered it and began eating, feeling slightly less cheerful than he had been before he came into the kitchen.

* * * * * * * * * *

Around that same time, somewhere on the oppistite side of the country, Jasmine Avery awoke with a start. 

She could have sworn she had just heard the sound of a scream coming from somewhere inside her house. She shook her head and rolled over onto her side. 

She was just imagining things, of course. There was no way what she heard could have been real.

She got up, dressed and headed out her room into the cold corridor.

Her house was a rather big house, and it was even more old. Her brother used to tell her it was haunted when she was little, and during thunderstorms she would take to hiding under the bed for fear of the vengeful ghost that walked around the house.

That was before her brother went away with her parents for a holiday.

She was left alone with the house elves and Vermont, the family servent, told that she was too young.

Her brother came back a week later changed. He no longer told her ghost stories, or played hide and seek with her in the garden, he spent his time in their fathers library looking through dusty spell books.

Jasmine sighed and headed down to the kitchen to get some breakfast, hoping not to meet any of her family on the way.

She had successfully avoided her parents the previous night, by retiring almost as soon as she got home.

She had a small feeling that her mother and father would be slightly less than welcoming after she had spent a year in the Gryffindor house.

She reached the kitchen to find her brother sitting at the kitchen table with another Slytherin boy from his year. 

They were pointing their wands at something and chuckling.

Jasmine made a move to back away before they spotted her, but her foot scraped on the stone floor and her brother looked up sharply.

'Good morning Sister.' He said darkly, alerting the other boys attention to her.

'Oh, hello.' He said to her in a pleasant voice. 'Have we met?' 

Her brother, Douglass, scowled. 'That's my sister.' He told his friend darkly. 'Jasmine.'

'What a pretty name.' He in a sickly-sweet voice. 'It suits you. I'm Lucious by the way, Lucious Malfoy.'

Jasmine smiled bitterly. 'Hi.'

Her brother was watching this display with interest, suddenly he smiled. 'Won't you join us, Sister Dear?' He said in a would-be warm voice.

'No, it's ok. I'm not all that hungry.' She said quickly, avoiding Malfoy's imploring eyes. 'I've got a Panadol, -I mean a headache. I just came down here for a Panadol.' 

She hurried to the cupboard above the sink and quickly pulled out a white box. 'See.' She said, holding it up to show them.

Her brother rolled his eyes and turned back to the thing on the table and started poking it with his wand.

Jasmine, over come by curiosity, snuck a quick look at it.

It was a mouse, or was a mouse. It looked as though it had been set one fire, then put under the crucio curse, which was probably what had happened. As Douglass' wand poked it, it moved it's little poor desperately, as though begging for help.

The boys sniggered mercilessly at it's efforts.

Jasmine's throat gave out a sound of disgust and hurried away back up to her room.

* * * * * * * * * *

A couple of days later and the familier feeling of holiday boredom had kicked in for our Hogwarts chappies. Lily had had no contact with her school friends, if you exclude the cursed mail that she received from James not long after he had received his mail on the first day.

Her hair was now staying a delightfully sickening shade of yellowish orange and all oily, no matter how many times she had tried to wash it.

As soon as her mother saw her with her –ah, new attitude concerning the keeping of her "beautiful fiery locks", she had been grounded, on the spot, no questions asked, for until it was changed back to her normal state. 

Lily had decided it was wiser to refrain from informing her mother that a boy in her year from school had done it to her, as her mother probably would have marched straight over to his house and demanded he change it back, or done something equally humiliating.

So that was the main reason she was currently sitting on her bed looking up a counter curse for her hair dipping her index finger in a bowl of melted chocolate frogs that came from the Hogwarts express. 

She heard the phone ring downstairs and her ears pricked in hope that it would be Jasmine or someone from Hogwarts.

A moment later she heard her sisters heavy steps come bounding up the stairs.

'I'll just get the little witch- opps, I mean Lily for you.' She heard Petunia say into the phone with an over-sweet voice.

Petunia opened the door, shot her sister an innocent smile, chucked her the phone and backed out closing the door behind her.

Lily lifted the receiver up to her ear. 'Hello?' She said into it.

'Lily!' An excited voice shouted gleefully back.

Lily frowned slightly and helld the phone a little further away from her ear. 'Who is this?' She asked uncertainly.

'It's Cara, from primary school!' She said excitedly. 'I've been trying to get through for ages, but your phones always engaged. '

'That would be Petunia's fault.' Lily muttered.

Cara seemed not to hear. 'So anyway, how've you bin?' She continued. 'And why did Petunia call you a little witch before?' 

_Because I have a wand and she doesn't._ Lily thought smugly, smiling to herself. 'Oh, it's just that time of the day again.' Lily told her friend.

Cara laughed. 'So anyway, are there any cute boys at your school? Wasn't there one that you met before term? Wasn't he cute? What does he look like?'

Lily stared at the phone in utter disbelief. _She hasn't talked to me for almost a year and the first topic of conversation is about James?'_ She thought desperately to herself. 

'Well?' Came Cara's impatient voice.

'Well, yeah, he's kinda –I mean no! He's a dickhead! James Potter, the bigheaded, dickhead of Hogwarts!' She said angrily fingering some grotty strands of her hair.

'Uh huh,' Cara said disbelievingly. 'Hogwarts? What kind of name is that?'

'I reckon it's a cool name.' Lily said defensively, cursing herself for mentioning her school.

'Well I've never heard of it.' Cara said. 'Where is it?' 

'Up north.' Lily said shortly.

'…Where up north?' Cara asked her.

'I dunno.' Lily said truthfully. 'We take a train to it.' 

'Really?' Cara said getting excited all over again. 'So do we! What station do you use?'

'Kingscross.' Lily said glumly.

'Oh my God! Us too!' Cara went on.

'Yeah, cool.' Lily said in a false voice. 'I've got to go now. I'll talk to you later.' Lily told her.

'Oh ok then. See-ya.' 

'Yep, see-ya.' Lily agreed, hanging up the phone and flopping backwoods on her bed.

* * * * * * * * * *

A week later, the un-pleasant hair colour had retreaded from Lily's hair and she and her muggle friends were sitting around her kitchen table talking and eating chips. 

Jenny, who had been moaning about how hard one of her end-of-year tests were suddenly turned to Lily.

'What did you think of your tests Lily?' She asked innocently.

Lily looked up from her bowl of chips and stared at her for a moment.

'My tests?' She asked meekly. 'My tests were…interesting.' She answered.

Jenny looked only half satisfied with her answer, but turned back to Cara anyway.

'So, did I tell you about Mark?' She asked excitedly.

Cara looked up with interest. 'No. Who's Mark?' She asked.

'He's only THE cutest guy at my school who, like has a total crush on me.' She said airily.

'Ooooh!' Cara squealed. 'What's he like?'

'Well, he's really popular, and he's smart and he's-'

Lily let out a short laugh.

'What?' Jenny asked her annoyed. 

'Oh nothing. Please do continue with your little story about how this guy has a crush on you, only try to make it a little different from your last five, they're getting boring.' Lily told her plainly.

Cara and Jenny looked shocked. 'Honestly, Lily.' She said in an angry voice. 'You've changed, you used to be cool. Now your just a bitch.'

Lily glared at her. 'Is that a fact?' She asked annoyed. 'Well hey, I'd rather be a bitch than a boring, lying bimbo who's too stupid to even think up good comebacks!'

'Why you little-'

**"Arrrrrgh!"**

She was interrupted by a loud scream coming from her lounge room where Petunia was watching TV. 

Lily quickly got up and rushed in to see what the commotion was all about.

Two tallish boys were standing next to the fire-place, looking very dirty and holding onto what looked like a very old wizards hat. 

Petunia was cowering in one of the armchairs.

'Oh dear God.' Lily muttered as she recognised the boys as James and Sirius.

'_Potter! Sirius!'_ She yelled at them angrily. 'What the hell are you doing here?!"

James turned to Sirius. 'Yeah, Sirius. What _are _we doing here, you said we were going to Diagon Alley.'

'I lied, Lily's more interesting than watching you goggle at broomsticks.' Sirius said calmly, making his way out of the lounge room and into the kitchen.

James shrugged at followed and Lily ran after them looking very annoyed.

In the kitchen Sirius was introducing himself to Cara and Jenny who were looking very shocked and amazed by the sudden visitors.

'I'm Sirius Black, and this is James Potter. We're friends of Lily's from school.'

'Your James?' Cara asked looking amused. 'Your right, Lil, he _is _cute.' She said to Lily, eyeing James up and down.

Sirius burst out laughing as James raised his eyebrows at Lily.

'I never said he was cute!' She said, defensively, her face going as red as her hair.

'Yes you did…' Cara started, but stopped as she saw the murderous look on Lily's face. 

Jenny, who had been keeping quiet until now suddenly spoke up. 'Hey, lets go to a movie or something. This is boring.' 

Cara nodded her head. 'Yeah, there's a cinema just around the block from here. You guys want to come?' She asked.

Sirius and James looked at each other and shrugged. 'Sure, why not?' James said, shooting a glance at a scowling Lily.

'Fine.' Lily said unexcited.

'Excellent.' Jenny said, flashing a smile at James.

Out on the street Jenny and Cara started walking, but Lily held James and Sirius back. 'If either of you mention Hogwarts or magic at all, as soon as we get back to school I will personally turn you both into hairy little flubberworms.'

'You know, I might feel a tiny bit threatened at that if I didn't know how bad you are at transfiguration.' James told her smartly.

Lily glared at him. 'Just watch it, Potter.' She told him.

'Sure, sure. Whatever.' He muttered, absentmindedly.

He hurried to catch up to the girls while Sirius remained with Lily looking at her with an expression of amusement on his face.

'What?' Lily asked him fed-up. 

Sirius placed an arm around her shoulder. 'Did you really say that James was cute?' He asked grinning at her.

Lily stared at him in disbelief. 'What do you think?' She asked annoyed.

Sirius' grin widened and he started humming. 'Da-Dum-dum-ta-dum' He dodged Lily's violent arm and bounced away after the others.

* * * * * * * * *

Later that evening, after Cara's mum had dropped Lily home, she was sitting in the lounge room watching the six o'clock news.

She heard her mothers car pull into the gravel drive way.

The front door opened and her sister appeared carrying two bags of groceries. 

She gave Lily a quick glance before hurrying on to the kitchen to put the groceries away.

A moment later her mother appeared.

'Hello Lily-dear.' She said in a surprisingly warm voice. 'How was your day?'

'Fine.' Lily lied. Having to sit through an hour and a half of Sirius' taunts about her and James was not exactly what she would normally call fine.

Her mother nodded and was about to walk away when she seemed to suddenly remember something. 'Oh yeah, we're having company tonight and Petunia has requested that you "try to act normal" and not cast any weird rituals.'

Lily chocked. _'Weird rituals?'_ She spluttered outraged.

Her mother ignored her and walked away into the kitchen to start cooking dinner.

Lily turned back to the TV, still fuming, to catch the last of a news report.

_"…Experts are baffled to the circumstances surrounding the deaths saying that the body's are all in healthy conditions. The only lead that the police have is an odd green symbol that was left hovering above the house…"_ A picture of a snake coming out of a green skull was shown to the top right of the news readers head. _"…Police have asked for anyone who has any information on this incident to report it immediately by calling 1800 55 57 80.Now onto the weather with George Micheals."_

_ _

Lily shuddered and switched off the TV.

She heard a small meow coming from the front door and went to open it for Isis.

The street was dimly lit outside by one street light a couple of houses down. 

She peered out into the shadows and little tingles spread slowly up her spine.

The news report flashed through her mind and she hurriedly scooped Isis up and shut the door.

She carried the grey and white cat up to her room and deposited her onto her bed while she sat down at her desk chair.

Her homework lay where it had been left unfinished the previous night. A potions assignment that they had to complete before they got back to Hogwarts.

Lily had given it a glance before giving up on it. They were meant to name all the potions that needed a kneazles paw in it, then chose one and make it. 

Lily, who having read about kneazles in a book the previous year, had found it too cruel and gross.

She closed her books and pulled out a fresh bit of paper and started to draw on it.

She wasn't sure what she was drawing at first, she was just putting sketchy little lines on the paper. She saw it turn slowly into a tree and started drawing an owl on one of the top branches.

A knock sounded on her door and she looked up. 'Come in.' She called.

The door opened and her sister entered wearing a red turtleneck top that made her neck look twice its usual size.

'Good evening Lily.' Petunia said sourly. 'How are you.?'

'Actually, I was just about to do a "bizarre ritual" to jinx the dinner tonight. How about you?'

'Maaaaaarm!' Petunia screamed. _'She said she was going to Jinx the dinner tonight!_' 

'Oh _grow-up_ Petunia!' Lily told her exasperatedly. 'I've got better things to do than ruin your stupid dinner.'

Petunia gave her an un-pleasant scowl. 'You'd better not, or I'll make sure your life is a living hell!' She threatened. 'Oh yeah, and that picture sucks.' She added before turning and storming out of Lily's room again.

Lily poked her tongue out through her door at Petunia and chucked her drawing in the bin. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Hey! It's finished! Don't you all love me for finally getting it done? Not really because this was such a pointless chapter. Oh well. Who cares, they get back to Hogwarts next chapter, -thank-god…

*Review!*


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